Nevermore
by Juniper.Bee
Summary: "She hadn't even know there could be something as wonderful and as terrible as magic." OC-focused fic set in the Marauders' time. Rated M for language and later chapters.
1. The Corvinuses

_"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked._

_"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."_

_"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice._

_"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn't have come here." - Lewis Carroll, **Alice in**_ _**Wonderland  
**  
_***_  
_

It was a Tuesday and it was raining. A soft patter of drops hit the outside of the windowpane with not anger but confusion. A young girl of no more than eleven sat reading a book on the windowsill, her favourite spot in the entire house. The wide, round frame perched on the highest peak of the ancient dark house gave her ample room to sit or stretch out her legs. In the evening the sun would set just beyond the outer hills, casting orange and purple rays into the library and giving it an unnatural glow. Unfortunately, this late summer afternoon was overcast and gloomy.

A silky body hit her leg and she looked down at the spectre which inhabited her grandfather's house.

"Oh, hello George," she said as she stroked the cat's cold and shiny fur. She was always careful to keep her hand on the surface of his being, dreading the awkwardly damp sensation of ghostly innards.

George had been a man once, an Animagus at that, who had been unfortunate enough to lose his life while still in beast form. He was something of a great, great half cousin once removed who had fallen into some gambling issues and, unable to pay his debts, had taken refuge in the house with the relatives who owned it at the time. Either that or he was completely unrelated to her and had been adopted at some point hundreds of years ago and simply preferred to live as a feline. A third option, which George seemed to like the least, was that once upon a time he was a great and powerful wizard but dreadfully ugly. He was so ugly that even with all his great and powerful wizarding abilities he was unable to cure himself of his wretched appearance and mistakenly turned himself into a cat. But really the stories depended on who you asked, and the girl could never be sure who was right and who was wrong.

Her gaze trailing upwards, she stared at the rain.

Downstairs, in a much cleaner part of the house, the girl's very old grandfather and even older great aunt were seated in the study, playing a rapping game of chess. The very same rapping game that had been going on the past hour and a half, for the most part in silence.

"What does that girl do all day?" asked her great aunt, wondering if it were to be the right move to place her queen on E5.

"She reads," replied her grandfather.

"Reads? All day? All alone in that stuffy library? No wonder she's as pale as a sheet, she never sees the sunlight!"

"Tower to E5."

Sylvie Corvinus watched the tower pummel her queen and pursed her lips; the game would be over soon.

"It's a good thing her cousins are coming over tonight. Maybe she'll enjoy the company of other children as opposed to sitting alone in this creepy house."

"Yes... Yes, the Greengrasses should be here shortly." Waldrom Corvinus turned pensive, thoughts of his great niece and nephews churning in his mind. "Although, if Claudia wanted to be with other children she would have gone down into the village and made friends."

"Oh, Waldrom, you remember how those Muggle brats treated us when we were growing up here? I'm certain it wouldn't be much different. They all thought we were a bunch of freaks, living in this decrepit haunted house on the top of the hill. Queer folk, they'd say, and their mothers would chastise them for even speaking to us."

"We would have had an easier time of it had you not made that Caldwell boy dance in front of the entire town."

"It wasn't my fault, you know how much he bothered Agatha. I couldn't help it anyway, I was young, without even a wand."

Waldrom pulled out his pocket watch, glancing at the old grandfather clock in the study and winding it to the correct time. It was a large silver thing, clunky and impractical, as the minute hand jumped forwards four minutes at the stroke of every hour.

"Yes, the Greengrasses will be here in due time. Queen to G9."

The woman watched as her King threw down his sword in defeat.

"No matter," she said with a wave of her hand.

Reaching over to the side table beside her she took hold of a small bell and rang it three times. As if aparating from thin air an old house elf with wobbly knees approached the siblings.

"Yes, Madam?"

"Some tea please, Madrina."

The elf bent over very slowly in a low bow, an act ignored by the accompanying party, and left in the direction of the kitchen.

"Madrina's certainly getting on," Sylvie commented. "I hope we don't find her stone dead one of these days."

"That house elf still has many years ahead of her."

"The poor dear, though. She doesn't even have a thing to look forward to after her service is done. Not like those wretched Black household elves. They at least look forward to having their heads severed and put on the wall."

"It's out of the question, Sylvie."

"What is? You don't even know what I was going to propose."

There was a pause, their dark blue eyes meeting momentarily before Sylvie sighed.

"I'm so fond of her, Waldrom, why couldn't we put her head on the wall?"

"As I said before, it's out of the question."

"Oh, why not? At least give the poor dear something to look forward to. We could place it right there, just over the mantle. She'd be so pleased, and we could admire her every day."

"I will not put my deceased house elf's head on any wall."

"You're a stubborn old man, did you know that?"

Waldrom did not respond, once again glancing between his pocket watch and the grandfather clock. Madrina then arrived with the prepared tea, the serving platter swaying precariously with her clumsy footsteps. The house elf set it down on the side table and began pouring the first cup.

A loud hoot suddenly rang beside them, and both heads turned to see a dark brown owl, scratching and pecking at the window.

"Madrina, would you please take care of that?" Sylvie asked before bringing her steaming cup of tea to her lips.

The ancient elf hobbled over to the window, stretching on her tiptoes to undo the latch and untie the dripping wet letter attached to the flailing owl's leg. Suddenly Waldrom gained interest. He took the letter from her without a word and swept his wand over it, instantly drying the thick parchment before unrolling it, his expression blank and stern. Just as suspected, his granddaughter's name was printed in emerald ink on the front.

"What is it, Waldrom?"

He turned the letter around to face his older sister, his hand clenching it tightly.

"You look strangely relieved," Sylvie said with a small smile.

Waldrom brought the thick envelope close to him, staring down at it as he held it in both of his hands. With a loud rattle his older sister dropped her tea cup onto its saucer and stared at her brother incredulously.

"You can't be serious," she breathed. "After all this time and you still had your doubts?"

"It's late," he said, turning it over and over in his hands.

"Late? It's barely the end of July for Merlin's sake!"

"Mine came July fifth. Yours on July ninth, and Agatha's on July sixth."

"It's ridiculous how you remember that. And really, Waldrom, after all the _ability_ she's exhibited. After all those incidents... I won't need remind you what she did to my precious Belle."

Waldrom inwardly snickered at the memory of his sister's constantly squawking raven. The stupid thing never shut up, it deserved what it had coming.

"You would think after the three years she's spent in this house that you would have at least a little faith. There was honestly no sliver of a chance she'd be diseased like her mother..."

The glaring look in the old man's eyes was uncharacteristic.

"Althea is not to be discussed in this household, we've been over that," Waldrom hissed through clenched teeth. "Need I remind you again?"

Sylvie shook her head, her shaking hand reaching out to grasp her teacup. As she sipped, she coughed loudly, almost choking on the hot liquid.

"Claudia," she gasped.

The small girl stood in the doorway, her eyes wide as she approached the twosome, who still sat at either end of the chess table.

"You'll never guess who won at chess this afternoon," Sylvie said kindly, motioning the girl closer.

"Are you going to make me guess again?" Claudia asked.

"Yes, go on and guess!"

"Grandfather," she replied without missing a beat.

"Well... Yes, that he did."

Sylvie, never having had any children of her own and being nearly ninety, was quite good at tiring out old games. The pleasant and slightly condescending tone she used with her great niece only annoyed Claudia. Although the eleven year old was much too old for Sylvie's games, she gave in periodically only to see the wide, yellow-toothed smile that was now plastered across her great aunt's face.

"Something came for you."

"For me?" she asked, looking at her grandfather's outstretched hand.

She took the letter, tracing her finger over the emerald green imprints which spelled out her name.

"Is this my Hogwarts letter?" she asked.

"Presumably so."

"Why don't you open it and find out?" Sylvie asked excitedly.

Claudia looked back at the thick envelope, lining her finger under the flap and tearing the top open. She pulled out a few pages of parchment, the top one bearing the Hogwarts crest in bold, black ink. She bent over the folded pages, silently reading the acceptance paragraph over and over in her head. Her family had spoken numerous times of Hogwarts, as nearly all had attended. She had heard many things about the school, an assortment of viewpoints ranging from the 'terrible academia' to the 'wonderful sense of brotherhood,' and other anecdotal biases spoken by the elderly. Her cousins, who Claudia could barely even tolerate at most times, spoke highly of the school and regularly recounted stories involving their friends and whatever they got up to during the year. This worried the young girl. She was vastly different from her cousins, from most of her family in general. If they found Hogwarts so wonderful, then presumably all students could be like them. Claudia swallowed a hard lump that was rising in her throat.

She hadn't even know there could be something as wonderful and as terrible as magic before she was sent to live with her grandfather three years previous. A whole new world had expanded in front of her, strangely richer than what normal life had provided. Recently, as her vocabulary improved, she set her sights on ravaging her grandfather's library in the hopes of better understanding magic. The intricacies of potions, charms, and even the wizarding world's history had engulfed her. Claudia had nestled herself into the library, devouring old, out of date texts and gawking at images of dragons and pixies. It was something out of a fairy tale, complete with a blackened manor house atop a hill. Still, she felt that even with all her studies she wouldn't be prepared.

"Well, aren't you excited?"

Sylvie stared at her expectantly, watching as the girl's eyes slowly rose from the page. She had no words to explain the sudden pit that had formed in the bottom of her stomach.

"Let's see your booklist."

Claudia handed over the correct piece of parchment to her grandfather, who nodded over it as if already suspecting many of the titles to be present.

"Tomorrow we'll make the trip to Diagon Alley and pick up what you need."

She nodded, taking the page and folding it, along with others, back into the envelope. For now her future was tucked away safely in folded paper. All she had left to dread was the arrival of her cousins.

***

Claudia stood by her bedroom mirror, brushing out her long, blonde hair as she readied herself for dinner. On her dresser table a silver gleam caught her eye and she narrowed her eyes on the photo frame. It was a normal Muggle photo, still as the moment in which it was taken. In it was her mother, holding a very young Claudia in her arms as the two faced the camera. Her mother was a beautiful woman. She had long, tousled blonde hair and bright sky blue eyes. Although Claudia shared her blonde hair and blue eyes, the tones differed greatly. Her eyes were a deep blue, the same colour as her grandfather's. There was a certain radiance Claudia lacked. The same radiance held by her mother in the way her head tilted as she smiled, as if constantly beaming with laughter. They shared the same high cheekbones and straight, long, pointed nose, but this was the only resemblance Claudia could point out. She remembered sitting on her mother's bed when she was little, watching her brush out her long, golden locks every night. Claudia tried vainly to recapture the image. She tilted her head, smiling unnaturally wide as she brushed out her limp hair. It was useless.

"Claudia!" her aunt called, knocking on her door. "The guests have arrived!"

Balthazar gave Claudia's leg a swift kick from underneath the table and the young girl winced slightly in pain. He snickered until reaching his great aunt Sylvie's disapproving gaze and forfeited to continue eating his dinner in silence. Harold echoed his older brother's laughter, going so far as to stick out his tongue. Pinpricks along her other side told her that these two cousins were not the only ones shooting snobbish stares in her direction. Claudia turned her head, her eyes meeting the casual gaze of Desdemona Greengrass. She had acquired the trademark Corvinus reservation from her grandmother, and it suited her calm features well. Though there was an unmistakeable hatred in her eyes that quietly overpowered her seeming unenthused opinion of the young girl.

Desdemona looked away, focusing on tipping her glass between her parted lips and not paying Claudia the least bit of attention. This cool sense of detachment was lost on Lucretia Greengrass, their mother. All three of the children shared their mother's black locks and dark brown eyes, differing from their father's deep blues. What they did not share was her neurotic composure. Her features were constantly tense, as if she longed for the same noble mannerisms as the rest of the family seated around the table. Cronus Greengrass had married a waif of a woman with no significant heritage, but with a pile of gold and heiress to a small portion of Gringotts. Cronus was the son of Agatha, the third elder Corvinus, though she had passed many years ago due to a dreadful case of dragon pox.

The intricacies of Claudia's family had been all very confusing the first few times it had been explained. It was only when she happened upon an old family lineage album in the library that she found some reason to the disorganized pieces of the Corvinus family. As far as she knew, most pureblood families were all related somehow, whether that be by marriage, ancestry, or in some cases both.

Balthazar was staring at her again and it was making her feel quite uncomfortable. Idle chat filled the room as she refused to look back at him. She poked at her dinner, having lost her appetite in present company.

"The Hogwarts acceptance letter came earlier this afternoon," her great aunt announced.

"That's wonderful," Cronus acknowledged proudly. "With your talent you'll make a fine Slytherin, just like Desdemona and Balthazar."

"Or she'll make her grandfather quite proud and be sorted into Ravenclaw," said Sylvie. "The Corvinuses are known for their quick wit, and the majority of the family was placed there."

"Ravenclaw would be perfect for a bookworm like you," Balthazar said under his breath.

"Her ability would prosper best in Slytherin," commented Lucretia. "With her power, the most noble house would gladly take her."

Claudia looked down, biting her lip. Yes, all that _power_ she had displayed in the form of impulse would do well with people like her cousins, but not with her. The things she had done were quite unsettling, to be frank.

"Wandless magic is a logical base for determining power, that's true," said Waldrom. "But only if the Witch or Wizard asserts to contain and guide said power."

"Repairing broken items and growing back hair is one thing," said Cronus. "An impulse to kill is another."

Claudia felt the small amount of colour in her face drain as she grew more and more uncomfortable with the conversation. This is what always happened at family get-togethers, talk of power and marriage. She was sure that her imminent spousal choice would be brought up soon enough.

"Her power is great, and this is why it must be cherished and saved," continued Cronus. "Keeping the bloodline pure in her marriage to Balthazar will be one step to insuring the sanctity of the wizarding race."

And there it was, her arranged marriage to her cousin. Cronus had found her most fascinating since she had arrived on her grandfather's doorstep, especially with the story she carried, and wasted no time in ensuring her genes would flow through the blood of his grandchildren. The thought disgusted Claudia. She couldn't imagine holding hands with Balthazar, let alone marrying him.

"Yes, well, those matters will be dealt with when the time comes," said her grandfather.

This time Claudia was unable to turn her head to meet her cousin's burning eyes.

***

**A/N - Brand new story and my first post! It is rated M for future sex and violence. Please let me know what you think.**


	2. Hogwarts

_"It is our choices that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities." - Albus Dumbledore, __**Harry Potter and the Chamber of** **Secrets**_

***  
7... 8... 9...

The platforms glided past the anxious little girl and her grandfather. A rickety trolley carrying a large trunk and a few other parcels rolled in front of them. It swayed in jerky motions, threatening to tip at some points even on the smooth concrete floor, the girl having some trouble keeping up with her grandfather's quick pace as well as shoving the trolley along. She could barely even see over the mound of carefully placed luggage. Only the rhythmic tap of his walking stick helped lead the way.

Abruptly, the old man stopped. His towering form remained a good pace away from his young granddaughter, facing the large pillar between platforms nine and ten. Slowly he examined his pocket watch, squinting into its chunky face. He then turned to her with his concentrated eyes as the girl swerved the trolley to keep from hitting him.

"On schedule," he announced in his low voice.

Out of the corner of her eye, Claudia could detect the stares the twosome received. Ordinary people gawked at Waldrom Corvinus' formal three piece suit and navy cloak. His tall stature didn't help in avoiding hushed whispers and nods in his direction. Claudia herself was dressed very plainly, though much more up to date than her grandfather. She abandoned her place behind the trolley, trying her best to ignore the stares. She took her place beside the elder gentleman, who stared pointedly at the brick wall in front of them.

"Would you prefer if I go first?" he asked, his tone never softening.

Slowly, the girl of eleven nodded, and watched with a hard expression as he easily disappeared past the seemingly solid pillar. For a moment she stood there, still as the plaster walls around her. She breathed deeply, wanting to reach out a tentative hand and possibly graze the wall before attempting to run through it herself.

"S'cuse me?"

Claudia tensed and turned to face the voice behind her. It was a family, comprising of a stout mother, two rosy boys and a lean father who had spoken up. Beside them were two trolleys, just as stacked as Claudia's own.

"If you're going to be much longer, would you mind if we bumped ahead?"

She did not answer, only stared at them for a moment before shaking her head and pushing her things to the side to make room.

"Thank you, dear," smiled the mother as the family filed through to platform 9 3/4.

Finally she grasped the handle of her trolley, lining herself up with the pillar, and took off at a brisk pace. Her heart stuttered as she reached it, but there was no time to rethink her decision. She shut her eyes as she passed through, opening them to reveal a very different train station.

"Took you long enough," a stern voice scolded from above her.

Claudia looked up to meet her grandfather's expression and let out a deep breath, taking in the scenery around her. The platform was bubbling with activity; friends greeting each other with hugs, parents chasing after little ones, owls swooping low overhead... All this lined with a thin layer of smoke as the Hogwarts Express prepared for departure.

Claudia's eyes jumped, unable to take it all in. Her nose recoiled slightly as an awful, burning stench filled her nostrils. Looking to her right she saw a group of older students, one of whose hair had caught on fire. They all roared with laughter, including the one with the burning scalp. Barely a second later her bent into a low bow and the fire extinguished itself, revealing his bright red hair. A boy identical to him clapped him on the back, while a few onlookers began applauding admiringly. But most of the people surrounding the teenagers didn't pay them the least bit of attention. Giving her head a slight shake, the girl took off down the platform, once again trying to catch up with her grandfather.

They traveled what felt like the entire length of the massive, auburn train. People who knew her older escort approached them with polite hellos and nods of their heads. Only a handful of people stopped to chat, all of them looking curiously at the young girl.

"Mr. Corvinus," greeted a particularly spindly looking woman. Her mass of black hair was twisted into a bun, sitting elegantly though slightly lopsided on the top of her head. The woman's image was what had been burned into Claudia's mind as an example of a witch. She was older and harrowing, dressed in all black. "I must say that I'm surprised in seeing you here."

"Mrs. Black," he replied, accepting her outstretched hand. "The circumstances should be none too surprising."

The woman glared back at him with terrifyingly bright grey eyes. She looked to his side, staring down at Claudia with those same frightful eyes. The young girl felt a sudden impulse to cringe away from her pointed stare.

"A daughter of the squib..." If Mrs. Black had intended to mutter such under her breath she had not succeeded.

The old man shot her a tense look, but this did not faze the woman from staring scathingly at the girl in obvious disgust.

"Such history," she continued, drawing her eyes back up towards the man. "And such a _waste_." The cackle in her tone was undeniable.

The pair stood there in uncomfortable stillness even after the wicked woman had turned her back to them, sharply walking away. Waldrom cleared his throat, adjusting his cloak and looking up past the girl's blonde head.

"You're going to be late," he said without glancing at his pocket watch.

Just as suspected the platform was steadily filing out. Stragglers flailed to be free of their mother's arms as they were clutched close. Claudia recognized the family from earlier, who had gone through the barrier before her. She watched the mother's loving fingers smooth out unkempt pieces of hair and wipe imaginary smudges off ruddy cheeks. Claudia's heart gave a slight wrench as the boys pushed away from their mother.

"Gerroff!" one cried, stomping his way towards the train.

"Oh," his mother tutted with false discipline before focusing the attention of her goodbyes onto her second son.

"Mum!" he whined as she pulled him in close one final time.

"Alright, dear, I think he's had enough," laughed the father. "Now run along, make lots of friends, keep your noses clean and all that nonsense!"

The weepy-eyed mother smiled, her husband wrapping an arm around her as they waved goodbye to their sons.

Claudia exhaled slowly. A part of her, somewhere deep in the pit of her stomach, lurched at the clear display of love. She swallowed hard, mentally kicking herself for the longing she felt, and quietly boarded the train.

Trailing her way down the aisle, the nervous young girl could only see full cabins on either side of her. It was only when she reached the second-last compartment on the left did she find an empty one. Sighing in relief she settled herself into the small, square room. Claudia could hear the constant buzz of voices through the slightly open door. Excitement filled every nook and cranny of the train. She listened to the noise in silence, waiting with a quick-beating heart for the train to begin its voyage. From the window she could see the open, urban terrain, settled nicely beneath a cloudless blue sky. Thoughts of the coming year were beginning to terrify her.

"Are these seats free?" asked a voice from the door.

The concentrated girl practically jumped in her seat, turning to face the opening door.

"Sorry," a redheaded girl said earnestly. "Didn't mean to frighten you."

"Oh, no, it's fine," the slight girl replied. "I was just... I wasn't doing much of anything, actually."

"I know the feeling," she said with a smile. "I'm Lily Evans, first year. You're a first year too, aren't you? I can tell, because you're not sitting with anyone."

Claudia stared at her, barely finding time to open her mouth before Lily spoke up again.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! I understand if you don't have any friends, that's fine. I'll be your friend if you like, but if you're older and you just don't like people then I'd understand if you didn't want to be friends."

"I... Um... I'm a first year."

Lily sighed in relief, smiling brightly once more. "Wonderful, then we'll be friends. What was your name again?"

"Claudia Corvinus," the girl replied, though she had never said her name to begin with.

"Right, Claudia. You don't mind if Severus sits with us, do you? He's the only one I really know here, well, except for yourself. He's my friend from back home. Oh, here he is now!"

Claudia's nod was cut off by a sharp groan from the door.

"You couldn't find an empty one?" the boy complained without so much as shooting a glance in Claudia's direction.

The redheaded girl gave him a look that clearly said 'shut up', and then turned back to the blonde.

"Don't mind him, he's just a little antsy to get there."

Claudia watched the greasy ghost of a boy take a seat beside Lily and begin a conversation she was completely cut out from. Soon enough the train heaved to a start and little by little the landscape accelerated past the cabin window. A constant knot of worry twisted in her stomach. She worried she wouldn't know enough, that even with the amount of time she had spent studying the magical world by way of her grandfather's ancient texts her knowledge wouldn't suffice. She hadn't grown up knowing about this dual existence, hadn't enjoyed her early childhood surrounded by the reality of fairy tales. Her mind tormented her with thoughts of being too different to make any friends. If all Hogwarts students were like her cousins, she would be spending the coming seven years entirely alone.

Though, this Lily girl didn't seem like her cousins at all. She was genuinely nice and happily excited to be heading to school. And realistically, Claudia had already spent her first eleven years friendless and alone.

"Where do you think you'll be sorted?" she inquired, breaking the girl from her thoughts.

"I haven't thought about it much," Claudia lied.

"Are you even familiar with the houses?" Severus asked with a sneer. "What was your name again?"

"Claudia Corvinus."

"Corvinus?" He spoke the unfamiliar name in passing. "Are you Muggle-born?"

"No," Claudia said at first. "Well... Maybe."

The awkward boy stared at her with uncertainty. "Can either of your parents do magic?"

"No."

"Then you're Muggle-born. There are four houses, Slytherin being the best..."

"My grandfather's magical and I live with him, he's told me about the houses," Claudia quickly lied.

Severus eyed her with almost suspicion, but nodded shortly anyway. In actuality her grandfather hadn't said much about the houses. Many of the Corvinus' had been Ravenclaws, this she knew, and the rest of her family spoke quite highly of Slytherin. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were practically unknown to her, all she could really identify were their signature colours.

And Claudia was not about to explain her mother's nature to these strangers.

Severus tensed rather awkwardly, his posture stiffening and his shoulders rolling forwards slightly. Out of the corner of his eye he glanced at the door. Claudia followed his gaze curiously and saw two boys looking through the small window who could have easily been their age. Their eyes flicked repeatedly from Severus to each other, their howls of laughter so loud that they reverberated inside the small compartment.

"Leave it alone, Sev," Lily cautioned warmly.

Claudia looked back at the boys as they shot him one last look. They looked completely different from each other. One had longish black hair, neatly kept around his face, while the other looked as though he'd had his head stuck out the train window this whole time. This boy had glasses, spotlighting his mischievous eyes. The other's face was bare and rather pale, his expression stern and almost evil looking as he glared at Severus Snape.

Lily placed a calming hand on Severus' shoulder, squeezing him gently. She then turned her head and shot the two boys a nasty look.

"Oooh!" they both called out sarcastically before howling with laughter once again.

"Stupid gits," Lily muttered under her breath as they disappeared down the aisle.

Severus' eyes glazed over as he stared emotionlessly out the window. Thick rain clouds had materialized, the only light emanating from the sky being a thin line on the horizon. They were heavy and black and gave Claudia the feeling that this may not be the best first day at Hogwarts.

Sure enough, as they neared their destination, raindrops had started to fall from the sky. Thunder crashed and a terrifyingly large lightning bolt illuminated the faces of the three startled first years. They had been sitting in silence for the past little while. Lily had been huffing ever since a little while after the encounter with the two boys. Severus had promptly promised them a cruel hex on the first day of class tomorrow, which Lily had found unreasonable. When Severus had refused to take it back, Lily had refused to keep talking to him. Obviously the silence was getting to her though as she sat restlessly in her seat, swinging her legs and twiddling her thumbs.

Claudia picked off a stray hair that had found itself on the hem of her robes. She felt a little bit silly wearing the black, flowing garment. In her pocket she fingered the slightly rough texture of her wand, another thing that made her feel ridiculous. She had witnessed her grandfather and great aunt use their wands numerous times. A flick of a wrist to summon a object, a short word to illuminate an entire room...

The young girl peeked down at the end of her own wand. Ollivander had tried numerous combinations, including ash, birch, even rosewood mixed with Unicorn hair (which had produced a few fizzles before sending a box flying straight at his head). He hand handed her this one with a slight look, waiting to say anything before she gripped it and swayed her hand just a bit. A warm feeling rose in her, spreading from the palm of her hand to each of her fingertips. Life seemed to spring in a torrent of silvery wisps, which circulated the air in front of her before sparkling into flames and disappearing. Ollivander tilted his head, stating a loud that it was a wonderful fit. Maple - the same as her grandfather - stretching ten and half inches with a core of Thestral hair.

All too suddenly she abandoned the thin piece of wood in her pocket as she felt the train coming to a halt. The knot in her stomach tightened. Lily and Severus had already risen from their seats and were making their way out the door with the heavy flow of students that littered the aisle. Severus had gone ahead, while Lily hung back for a moment to wait for Claudia.

"Are you nervous?" she asked. "You look nervous. I'm nervous."

Lily took the girl's obvious lack of colour and failed response as tell-tale signs. She took the frozen girl by the hand, dragging her out towards the mass of filing students. They easily meshed into the crowd, voices around them ringing with excitement and anticipation. A few older students ahead of them did not seem so pleased, feeling a little down that their summer holidays were over.

The girls waited until they were outside to put on their pointed, black hats. The large rims were soon soggy as it down poured onto the mess of children.

"First years, this way!" called a thunderous voice through the heavy rain.

Lily and Claudia pivoted towards the voice, crashing into a pair of fellow first years as they did.

"Ow! Jeeze, Evans, watch where you're going!" cursed the black-haired boy after colliding with Lily.

Claudia mumbled something of an apology, cautiously glancing at the bespectacled boy she had bumped into. He looked at her incredulously for a moment, as if amazed and a little disappointed she was willing to simply say sorry and not make a fuss over the incident. Lily, on the other hand, was not so tolerant.

"Well I'd be able to get by if your fat heads weren't in the way!"

The grey eyed boy put his hands over his chest, feigning dismay.

"Oh, how sorry I am to have caused you such grief!" he hissed sarcastically.

Lily's brow furrowed at their laughter. She grabbed Claudia's hand once again, pulling her quickly towards the loud voice and away from the two boys.

"They're not worth it," she said, mostly to herself. "C'mon, let's go see if we can find Severus."

The girls searched aimlessly through the hoard of first years, unable to spot the missing boy. Claudia found it hard to tell who was who, everyone dawning the same pointed hat and black robes. Fortunately, the rain seemed to lighten up some. Either that or she was just getting used to the horrid weather.

"Why do you hate them so much anyways?" Claudia finally asked. The curiosity had been gnawing away at her ever since she witnessed the reaction to the boys on the train.

"Our first impressions weren't exactly great," Lily began.

As a beast of a man, who had introduced himself as Gamekeeper Ogg, began to rally the first years down the muddy path, Lily explained her reasoning to Claudia. She admitted that Severus probably started it, but that gave them no reason to be so unruly. Severus had made some sideways comment about Gryffindors being all brawn and yet no brain. This had sparked a reaction from a boy she named Potter, the one with the glasses, who explained that he came from a long line of Gryffindors and went on to call Severus' mother a toad. And that was all it took to begin the resentment between the young nemeses. A resentment that, unknown to them, would last the rest of their lives.

The next moment was slightly tense. Claudia was unsure how to follow the story of the train platform meeting. But as they wallowed out of Hogsmeade Station, she found that Lily was good at doing most of the talking. She continued the conversation single-handedly, explaining her knowledge of the four Hogwarts houses. While Slytherin was once again glorified as pure and noble, Gryffindor was defined as a house of 'toe-rag imbeciles'.

"I hope I'm not stuck with that horrible Potter," said Lily. "He's such a bully. I can't imagine all Gryffindors being that way, but still, sharing to a dorm with him for the next seven years? That would be awful! I guess if I get put into Gryffindor I can at least avoid him, but then I won't be able to hang around Severus as much. Sev says that he'll probably be put into Slytherin, at least that's what he'd prefer. He said that I couldn't be a Slytherin, since they only take pure or half bloods, and obviously I'm Muggle-born, but there could be a chance we end up in Ravenclaw together. That would be nice, being in the same house as him. I'll be happy anywhere though. You're a Muggle-born too so you won't end up in Slytherin either, so maybe we'll end up together? You said you live with your grandfather, and he's magical?"

"My grandfather and his sister," Claudia replied.

"Oh, that must be nice! I love the elderly, so much to learn from them. I guess he went to Hogwarts too, then? Do you know what house he was in? Severus says that mostly you're put into a house based on where your relatives went, which is why I'm not sure where I'll end up, but that's okay."

Claudia felt a weight drop in her stomach. Not only would she have to endure school with her cousins, but she would probably have to live with them too? At least Lily's constant yammering had given away something crucial about the girl; she was just as confused as Claudia. There was something nice in knowing that she wouldn't be the only one who didn't have a clue what was going on.

What mostly confused her was her parentage. Did her mother pass as non-magical, making her not even eligible for Slytherin? Or did her mother's condition make no difference, therefore making Claudia somewhat passable as at least half-blooded? She didn't know, she hadn't yet found anything to read on that. But silently and whole-heartedly, she wished the first option was the case.

"Four to a boat, no more and no less!" hollered Ogg.

They had reached a coastline where upwards of ten small, worn boats graced the shore. It was true that the rainstorm had lightened considerably, but Claudia still felt herself apprehensive about getting into a rickety boat. The waves seemed quite tumulus as she gazed out onto the lake. It was dark, almost pitch black under the cover of night, safe a small lantern that hung off every boat and gratuitous amount of whitecaps rolling above the water.

"They must have some sort of enchantment on them," Severus interjected out of nowhere. "So nobody gets tossed overboard and drowns."

Claudia was just wondering the same thing.

"Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you," Lily scolded as they gathered into one of the boats.

"Near the front," he replied shortly. He removed his hand and ran a hand through his undeniably greasy hair, scratching his scalp momentarily before placing the triangular point back on his head.

"I don't want any stragglers!" boomed Ogg. "So get yourselves in a seat before I leave you behind!"

A timid looking girl of short stature chanced a step closer to the boat that Claudia, Lily and Severus shared. The three heads turned towards her and she looked away quickly. Lily heaved a sigh at the girl's reluctance to find a place to sit. It was obvious that she didn't know anyone.

"We have an extra seat," she finally called, motioning the girl over.

The girl dawned a look of immense relief. She zipped towards the boat, stumbling slightly on a jagged piece of rock, and took the empty seat beside Claudia. She glanced appreciatively in Lily's direction, muttering something to herself, unaware of Severus' skewed glances.

"I'm Lily Evans," the redhead began as the boat tipped off. "This is Severus Snape and Claudia Corvinus."

"Astrid Entwhistle," she introduced, tugging half-heartedly on a white-blonde, braided pigtail.

A roar of perfectly recognizable laughter filled the air. Claudia looked over to see that in the boat a little ways beside them were Potter, the black haired boy, and two other unfamiliar boys. Potter was standing, obviously retelling a story as he waved his arms about to embellish the fiasco. Lily and Severus gave them stiff stares while Astrid seemed to be more interested in the rocky terrain that surrounded the lake and the cloudy sky above them.

Suddenly the wind picked up, the boat rocking in accordance. Claudia felt herself grip the edges of her seat before she even realized the action. Looking around her, she noticed that many other students had taken the same approach in ensuring their safe seats. The rain picked up, not as heavy as before, but certainly noticeable all the same. The little boats swayed to and fro, back and forth, jerking from the relentless push of the waves. Claudia watched as a slightly greenish tinge overcame Severus' normal pallor.

Upon turning a slow, winding bend the worry of the first years staying afloat was obliterated as they lay their eyes on Hogwarts for the first time. It was a beautifully ancient looking castle, nestled between rolling valleys and rugged mountains. Claudia felt her jaw drop as she took in its grandeur. She found its very appearance to be overwhelming. She couldn't believe how her life had gone from a small one bedroom apartment, to a creepy house on a hill, to _this_.

Another bought of laughter brought her back to her surroundings and she turned to see all four boys laughing pointedly at Severus.

"He's gonna heave!" a freckled one squealed in excitement.

Various other heads turned, and thoughts of falling into the lake were lost momentarily. Mostly everyone now had their eyes on Severus as he raised a hand to his mouth and forced down whatever was obviously trying to escape. Lily placed her hand comfortingly on his back, encouraging him to let it out, telling him that it would make him feel better. But Severus knew better than to listen to her advice, not particularly wanting to become the laughing stalk of the entire student body on his first day. Word would get around fast once they arrived at the castle about the first year who'd yacked during the ceremonious boat ride.

The boat gave another violent jerk, and Claudia was sure that Severus was done for. She did not realize, however, that her grip had loosened from her seat. With the large wave, she was heaved forwards and landed with a thud on the bottom of the wooden boat. At least now Severus didn't have to worry about being the point of ridicule for the entourage of first years. Just as she hit the ground Claudia's ears were met with incessant laughter. She sighed through her nose, ignoring her throbbing behind and picking herself up off the floor. She refused Lily's outstretched hand, reaching her feet and taking an extra moment to balance herself. Just as she was about to sit down, another crashing blow hit the small boat.

That was all it took to send the girl flying over the edge and plunging into the depths of the lake. In shock, she breathed in to cry out in surprise. Though, seeing as how she was already under the surface, all that filled her lungs was a few mouthfuls of water. Immediately she began to choke, grapping through the water's easy current to try and reach the open air. Her second misfortune came with the fact that she had never learnt to swim. Even in the calming water she could barely bring herself a foot upwards. Claudia's eyes went wide with panic, the only thing visible being the underside of the boats far above her. Her chest throbbed from the lack of air, her mouth gaping open, a shameless fear spread across her features. Suddenly something gripped her arm and she attempted to flail away from it in surprise. It yanked her upwards, back towards the raging waves. Claudia was slipping into darkness before she could fully register that someone had leapt into the freezing water and had practically saved her life.


	3. Hogwarts cont

_"Art thou pale for weariness  
of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,  
Wandering companionless  
Among the stars that have a different birth,  
And ever changing, like a joyless eye  
That finds no objects worth its constancy?_

_Thou chosen sister of the Spirit,  
That gazes on thee till in thee it pities..." Percy Bysshe Shelley, **To The** **Moon**_

* * *

"Come on, wake up!" snapped a voice from somewhere above the disoriented girl.

Claudia opened her eyes slowly, immediately choking up a good amount of water. A different voice groaned, having just been sprayed with the content of her lungs. Claudia couldn't care less if she had just spat up on this person; she was too busy being grateful for having air once again. She breathed hard, turning onto her side and attempting to sit up. Her body ached, and beneath her she could still feel the steady rhythmic swaying of the boat. But she was now lying on the hard stone floor of an underground pier. The boats were clustered a ways over, magically staying in place without the help of ropes. A single lantern swung overhead, the only signal to mark the entrance into the castle. A sense of claustrophobia reached the girl when she realized she was trapped within a tight circle of first year students.

"Finally! Thought you'd be eating your first supper at Hogwarts in the hospital wing!" laughed a gravely voice.

Claudia looked up to see Ogg, who was even bigger than she had imagined. He could have easily been seven feet tall, and had the girth to match his height. He chuckled with laughter long after his joke was stale and stared at her with hard, clear eyes. Up close, she realized he looked quite like a troll. Or at lease what she had seen from pictures.

The girl shivered, accidentally brushing up against someone beside her. She turned to see, with a certain amount of surprise, the black haired boy who had been exclusively with Potter the entire time. His expression had not changed much. His jaw was set tightly clenched and for the first time she really looked into his eyes. They were as terrifyingly bright as those woman's on the platform. She could see the noble resemblance in his features, and involuntarily she shivered. He passed a hand through his wet hair, brushing it back, and looked away from her.

"You should probably thank the fool of a boy for going after you," suggested Ogg. "Or else it'd a been left up to the mermaids, and god knows what mood they're in this fine evening."

Both children glanced at each other once more, shaking from the cold as the wind sliced into their soaked forms.

"T-T-Thank you," Claudia mustered, her teeth chattering so hard it was difficult to form words.

He did not reply, only went back to staring at her until she became uncomfortable enough to look away.

"You're very lucky indeed," said a stern voice from behind Ogg.

The Gamekeeper moved to the side to reveal a middle aged woman wearing a dark, emerald green robe, her hair tucked tightly underneath a matching pointed hat. Claudia soon realized that she had long since lost her hat to the dreaded waters, as had the boy beside her. The woman's face was tight behind her thinly framed glasses, her eyes only revealing the slightest signs of relief.

"Who knows what may have come of you had Mr. Black not acted so quickly. Though I wonder why you didn't jump in after Ms. Corvinus, Ogg?"

Her heart stuttered at the mention of his name. So he certainly was a Black, then. She pictured that horrible woman for the second time, and realized that Mrs. Black was most likely his mother, maybe grandmother. But he had just saved her life, hadn't he? His reaction in bumping into Lily wasn't the nicest, and his actions towards Severus were proving to be a little on cruel side. But if Mrs. Black already knew so much of her past then it was presumable this Black did too. So far, he hadn't shown the same distaste for her as the other had. _So far_, Claudia reminded herself. Also, she wondered, how this other woman knew her name.

The Gamekeeper was obviously used to her pointed stares and stern expression, because he rolled his eyes at her.

"Are you kidding me? Of course I did, practically had to save both of them and drag them back up into the boat," he laughed throatily.

Claudia stood, fully aware of the endless pairs of eyes that watched her. Whispers arose, and were just as quickly shot down by the pointed looking woman in front of them.

"And now, if we may continue," she began, turning to pace up a set of steps leading to an enormous open doorway. "I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress, Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor house. Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Claudia shivered again. Even if it had been raining for so long none of the other students, safe for Black, were as wet as she was. Her teeth chattered away noisily and she tried to keep her mouth shut tight to force them to stop.

"You will follow me through these doors and into the Great Hall, where you will be sorted into your respective house. That will be followed by a start of term feast and then your respective student heads of house will lead you to your dormitories. You are now a student of Hogwarts, and we expect the best from you, including behaviour and attitude. Poor examples of this are reprimanded with detention and a loss of house points. In being a Hogwarts student, you are also expected to remain within the grounds. Any student found off the grounds without proper consent will face suspension and possible expulsion. There are _no_ exceptions to this rule."

With that she turned, leaving the new students stunned with her directness. Ogg thumped away behind her and the first years began to file through the large entrance. Just as soon, Lily rushed towards Claudia with an exasperated expression.

"Claudia! Are you alright?" she asked.

From behind her Severus peered with little interested at the near-drowned girl.

"I'm f-f-fine," Claudia chattered, hugging herself tightly.

"I can't believe you did that," said a voice from behind her. Claudia turned to see that Potter was approaching Black, a smile plastered onto his face. "I mean, jumping into a lake to save someone? And a girl, at that! You might end up in Gryffindor after all, Sirius."

Potter slapped a friendly hand on his back and Black shot him a hopeful look. The friendliness was cut short by a sneer coming from Severus' direction.

"Gryffindor," he spat sarcastically. "A _Black_ would just as soon end up in Hufflepuff."

Before either boys could respond Severus turned and was following the rest of the students up the steps.

"You should be grateful! He saved your friend's life!" Potter hollered after him.

"She's not my friend," he replied without turning around.

Claudia was not as hurt by this statement as Lily thought her to be. Truth be told, she didn't particularly like Severus Snape much either. He was opinionated, rude, and would it have killed him to take a bath for their first day?

* * *

"Adler, Bernadette," called out Professor McGonagall from the front of the Great Hall.

A heavy-set girl burst from the line of first years and made her way over towards the Sorting Hat. Sitting down on the stool she smiled joyously, waving to someone seated at the Hufflepuff table. The hat sat upon her head for a few seconds before confirming her obvious hope.

"Hufflepuff!" it cried.

The girl threw it off her head and bounded away. The receiving table erupted into cheers as she took a seat near the middle, next to whoever she had been waving at.

"Avery, Damien."

A pompous looking worm of a boy made his way to the chair. The Sorting Hat barely touched his scalp before crying out, "Slytherin!"

He grinned, tossing the hat back onto the chair and quickly taking a seat at the Slytherin table near a shady group of students, who cheered the loudest. Claudia immediately recognized her older cousin Balthazar among them.

She was once again worried. Would it be this easy to place her? It seemed like everyone else here knew at least one other person already and she suddenly felt very alone. Silently, she hoped that she would at least be in the same house as Lily.

Karoline and Michaela Baum were the next to be sorted. The first of the twins was quickly put into Ravenclaw, while the hat took some time with the second. Finally, the same house was cried out for her as well and she took a seat beside her identical sister.

"Black, Sirius!"

Black strode from the line-up, a determined look on his face. Forcefully he pull the hat over his head and then waited. And waited. And waited. A hush fell over the Great Hall, punctuated with slight murmurs from every table. Not even Michaela Baum's sorting had taken this long. From what Claudia could see, the boy was shaking his head in the slightest manner, his hands gripping the edge of the stool so tightly that his knuckles were beginning to turn white.

"Gryffindor!" the Sorting Hat finally cried in a breathless tone.

The boy's eyes lit up, part of the hall breaking out in confused but happy cheers as he took a seat at the red and gold decorated table. Loud sneers and blatantly voiced disapprovals overtook the Slytherin table, most coming from that same, creepy crowd. Only one Slytherin girl looked proud, clapping politely and smiling. For a moment Claudia wondered if there was a reason the two houses had been placed on opposite sides of the Hall.

A few other students were called and promptly sorted before the moment of truth came to pass.

"Corvinus, Claudia!"

There was no awkward hush that fell over the students; barely anything out of the ordinary at all. It was only a slight hiss coming from the Slytherin table that pricked at Claudia's ears. She turned her head as she walked towards the hat, her eyes locking with Balthazar. His mouth was spread into a grin, his tongue hissing loudly behind clenched teeth. The worn, wooden stool was already damp from Black's robes. Uncomfortably she sat down, her face expressionless as the Sorting Hat was placed on her dripping, blonde hair.

"Hmm, let's see... Quiet and observant, cunning and yet thoughtful... A very logical mind indeed," the hat mused kindly into her ear. "The choice seems like it should be clear, but still... You've the stubbornness to be a Gryffindor, the wisdom to be a Ravenclaw. Lacking a little in the empathy department; Hufflepuff wouldn't fit in the least. It would seem that Slytherin is also out of the question."

Claudia breathed out in relief and nearly smiled. For a moment she was thankful for her mother and her condition and even for the teasing she had endured from her cousins.

"Ancestry can sometimes speak for itself... Ravenclaw!"

A weight in the pit of her stomach lifted. She removed the hat and stood, following the thunderous cheers from the Ravenclaw students to her appointed table. Various students shuffled along the benches, making room for the newly joined first year to sit. She sat there quietly, receiving small welcoming smiles from those around her. It was slowly becoming apparent that not all Hogwarts students were like her cousins, not in the least.

The next to join their table was Astrid, who almost face-planted off of the short stool as she jumped up. She took a seat next to Claudia, smiling proudly at another girl across from them. The older girl's face was surrounded by locks of dirty blonde hair. She pushed her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose, beaming back at the girl. They were probably sisters, Claudia concluded, noting the uncanny resemblance.

"Evans, Lily."

Watching her with hopeful eyes, Lily took a seat on the stool. There was barely a pause for breath before the hat cried out, "Gryffindor!"

A sad smile bit at the corners of Lily's mouth as she looked at Claudia, taking the hat off of her head. Promptly Lily's smile widened and she skipped off to take a seat at the cheering table.

Many more sortings ensued. Claudia recognized one of the boys who was in their boat, a short one by the name of Peter Pettigrew, as he was placed in Gryffindor. Potter was put into Gryffindor as well, and Claudia caught the harried look Lily gave him before grumbling and turning away. Sirius Black cheered the hardest, and the two young boys high-fived each other as Potter took a seat beside him. He then stuck out his tongue in Lily's direction. The fourth freckled boy who had been with them, Fletcher McKinnon, had been placed in Ravenclaw.

Severus was sorted into Slytherin and Claudia gave another short sigh of relief. After listening to Lily's chatter on the way to the boats, she knew that after Slytherin his second choice of house was Ravenclaw. She now felt grateful that she wouldn't have to put up with living with him her whole seven years at Hogwarts. Though, he did not receive as warm of a welcome as Avery. He was near the end of the alphabet, and the students were tiring and becoming antsy to get on with the evening. Still, he took a seat by a tall boy with pale blonde hair, who clapped modestly.

Finally, the division of the first years was complete, and the Sorting Hat was taken away from the front of the Great Hall. Claudia's stomach grumbled and as if on cue a feast appeared before her. Staring, she was conscious that her jaw had dropped in surprise. It was a nudge in the ribs from the girl sitting next to her that roused her from her wonder.

"House elves," Astrid stated with a knowing nod of her head.

Claudia nodded with her, although had no clue as to what house elves had to do with anything.

"And now," began an enthused voice from the Great Hall. "Welcome to Hogwarts. As usual, please try not to hurt yourself by way of accident or altercation. I wish our new batch of first years good luck with their studies, and would like to introduce to you our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Mudkip."

A very average man with very average features and thick glasses stood, greeting his new students with nods.

"You may recognize him as your former Herbology professor, in which case I present Professor Sprout, your new Herbology professor."

A short, rosy woman with a slightly tilted pointed hat stood and smiled out at the students before her.

"Please enjoy your meal, and I wish you a safe and happy year at Hogwarts."

Immediately following his short announcement the air was filled with the clatter of plates and jubilant voices. Claudia watched the elderly man take a seat at the head of the long table which stretched the room width-wise at the top of the Hall. His hair and beard were long and perfectly white. He wore a long violet robe which shimmered in the bright candlelight, and a matching pointed hat adorned with bright silver stars. Behind half-moon spectacles which sat at the end of his nose Claudia watched him glance warmly back at her with a pleasant smile. The girl quickly looked away, embarrassed to have been caught staring at the Headmaster. Her grandfather had sometimes mentioned Albus Dumbledore as a great wizard, someone to be admired, although a little on the cooky side.

Her stomach growled a second time, this time with more force. It was as if it were scolding her for sitting there empty handed while every other student had begun filling their plate. Sighing in contentment, Claudia gave in to the rumbling demands.

* * *

Yawing and bleary-eyed Claudia rose from bed with a little less worry in her stomach than the previous night.

"What time is it?" questioned a voice in mid-yawn.

"Just after seven," someone responded.

The two voices were very similar, the two bodies they corresponded to being very similar too. Though, upon meeting the Baum twins, it would have been safe to say that they were very different from each other. Michaela, who insisted on simply Kayla, was already up and about, pulling back the curtains and allowing bright beams of light to shine through. Karoline, who insisted on simply Kari, was not even out of bed yet, groaning and pulling the covers back over her head.

"C'mon, get up," Kayla urged, sitting on top of her twin sister. "You're going to make me late for class."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Kari replied, refusing to get out of bed.

Claudia headed towards the bathroom to get ready, grabbing the school uniform that had been placed at the bottom of her bed. She didn't remember it being there the previous night. She had been too sleepy and too surprised at the sight of her trunk and other belongings to even register the new clothing. There was a slow, steady pounding on the door and quickly she assembled her Hogwarts attire. She splashed her face with cold water and brushed her teeth as the rhythmic knocking continued. Upon opening the door, Kari head butted Claudia's collar bone lightly. She had been knocking the entire time, but with her forehead. Groggily she pushed into the open space of the washroom, muttering something about 'bloody school' as she did.

* * *

"Axius malfort?" Astrid inquired.

"Pardon?" Kayla asked.

"Axius malfort?" she repeated.

A few confused heads followed her gaze to Claudia's anxious eyes, skewed up towards the sky. Well, it wasn't truly the sky, but a perfect mimic of a roofless Great Hall. It was only slightly overcast, the sun peeking through the clouds somewhere closer to the Hufflepuff table. Realizing that everyone was staring at her, Claudia looked away from the enchanted ceiling and back at Astrid, who stared at her with interest.

"Someone might have slipped some axius malfort into your toast."

"What's axius malfort?" Kari asked through a mouthful of porridge.

"A draught that makes you anxious," she began in her airy voice. "It looks like they put it into our breakfast; lots of people look pretty worried this morning."

"You're bonkers," interjected freckled Fletcher McKinnon.

Astrid merely shrugged, scrutinizing her eggs with her fork.

"Miss. Corvinus?"

Claudia turned sideways in her seat, coming face to face with an incredibly short man. Well, he could have been a man. He was only a little taller than the average House Elf, with a complexion almost matching that of a goblin.

"Your timetable," he announced, handing her a thick piece of parchment with his knarled knuckled hand.

She didn't even have a moment to look down at the page before another Professor stopped in front of her on his way to the head table. A vile containing a hundred beady eyes knocked her Head of House in the head as the older man turned. Claudia's eyes followed the numerous trinkets and charms he wore up to his bushy eyebrows. He touched his nose, squinting at her from beneath the unruly white caterpillars.

"The moon's north node may be in your favour this week. I suggest you take advantage of it."

Claudia nodded, though still clearly confused by his words.

"That's Professor Zanthar, the Divination teacher," explained Astrid as he continued his walk. "My sister says he's the best professor here. And that was Professor Flitwick, he teaches Charms."

"Hey, why don't I get a node?" complained Fletcher after receiving his timetable.

* * *

**A/N - I've been having some issues with the automatic formatting FF applies, and with chapters not looking the same between the doc manager and a preview of the updated story, mainly with section breaks. I'd been quite attached to the '***' since that's what I use regardless of the story, but hopefully the 'Insert Horizontal Line' features treats me well. The lack of consistency between the first two chapters and chapters from now on is killing me though, haha. Now I've just realized how incredibly boring this little frustrated ramble has been, so for your amusement I suggest you try typing 'do a barrel roll' into Google. (This won't work on IE but it will for Chrome, not sure about other servers)**


	4. Learn to Fly

_"There is no such thing as fun for the whole family." Jerry Seinfeld_

* * *

It did not take long for Claudia to adjust somewhat to her new surroundings. Most of her early childhood had been spent living in boxes, constantly moving from one apartment to another. Even with the addition of magic after moving to her grandfather's, she had always lacked a sense of home. Sure, she was usually left out of conversations concerning a wizarding childhood, such as riding her first broom or eating her first chocolate frog, but these things didn't faze her as much as she thought they would. Truth be told, there was an altogether different atmosphere between the curdling house she had spent her last three years in and the world she now found herself a part of. It had been stale and crumbling around the edges, while this new place was bright and literally coated with a layer of magic.

She had taken a rather fond liking to Potions especially. Logic and measurements had always been her forte. Potions could be complex, but it was always straight to the point; do this, and you won't muck it up. Tuesdays were double Potions followed by Thursdays and Fridays, a subject she always shared with the Hufflepuffs. And Professor Slughorn, who taught Potions class, was quickly taking a liking to her ability.

Sometimes Lily would catch up with her in the hall, filling her in on life, the universe and everything. Lily had also taken a liking to Potions, as had Severus, and even that Peter Pettigrew boy in Lily's house. All in all, Claudia was immensely enjoying her first week at Hogwarts. Though, she seemed to be the only student dreading the upcoming Friday afternoon. That was when the first Flying lesson would take place, and Claudia - who had never used a broom unless it was to sweep the floor - was anxious as ever.

"You've got nothing to worry about," consoled Kari as they made their way to the pitch. "I've been riding a broom since before I could walk. It's really not that hard."

Nonetheless Claudia could feel her lips purse as all the first years gathered onto the field. It was a large space, much larger than any football terrain she had ever seen. There were no traditional goal posts either, instead there were three tall hoops, all varying in height. She hadn't read much on Quidditch, but she at least knew it was the official sport of the wizarding world.

In the middle of the field was a row of weather beaten broomsticks, all laying quite still on the ground.

"Welcome, first years, to your very first flying class. I am Mrs. Pearson." A short woman with her hair pulled into a tight bun and knee-high black boots approached out of nowhere.

"Er..." began Potter as he looked upon the brooms. "Would it be too much trouble to run back to my room and grab my Nimbus?"

"I might remind you that first years are prohibited from bringing their own brooms to Hogwarts," Mrs. Pearson said with a slight smirk.

"These brooms look perfectly reasonable," Potter said quickly. He ran a hand through his hair, as if trying to push it in every direction.

"Now," Mrs. Pearson continued, clapping her hands together. "If you would all take a spot beside a broomstick. Yes, very good. Oh, don't crowd around the better looking ones, they're all equally shabby sticks of wood! That's better! Now, place your hand above your broom- Miss. Baum, please follow the pace the rest of the class is taking!"

Kayla looked up, slightly alarmed, and quickly withdrew her hand from over her broom.

"No, not you! The other Baum!"

Kari had already raised her broom, and was preparing to mount it before she dropped back to the ground with a grumble.

"Place your hand above your broomstick, and command it with the word _up_!"

"Up," Claudia said cautiously, her hand outstretched over her broom.

The bristles moved slightly, but that may have been because of the wind.

"Up," she said a second time, a little louder.

The broom rolled over, tapping the edge of her foot. Claudia looked around, realizing that most of the students had already been able to command their broom into the air. Even Lily, who hadn't ridden a broom either, was currently holding hers mid-air.

"Up," Claudia tried a third time.

This one seemed to work. The rough piece of wood rose into the air with a wobble, hovering just beneath her outstretched palm. She gripped it, feeling it sway slightly in her grasp.

"Now, if you would all mount your brooms- Miss. Baum! This is the last warning you'll get before I throw you off of this pitch!"

Kari had been slowly rising above the rest of the students, hoping to avoid Mrs. Pearson's eyes.

"Please mount your brooms, yes, very good. Now, give a hard kick off of the ground and up you go!"

Claudia's jaw tightened. She held the broom in both of her clenched hands and waited a moment to observe the other students. She wasn't quite sure how to go about kicking off the ground. Did she use one foot to lift herself? Or did she have to jump slightly and land with two? Staring at the others, she matched their movements, and found herself slowly rising into the air.

"Forward motion, please!"

Again Claudia watched the others, tilting her broomstick until she was wobbling forwards. Kari gave her an encouraging thumbs up. She turned to her other side upon hearing muffled laughter. Both Potter and Black were laughing into their sleeves at some private joke. Just as suspected, they pointed towards Severus and began laughing again. Severus was having a hard time staying stable, a much harder time than Claudia even. His broom dipped up and down without him even moving the wood. Claudia sighed. It wasn't his fault his broom was a little more faulty than the others, he just got unlucky, and that wasn't much reason to make fun of him. Still, she watched as Potter lifted back his robes slightly, pointing his wand in Severus' direction. He muttered something only loud enough for his and Black's ears.

Immediately Severus' broomstick shot backwards, the surprised boy crying out in shock as he began looping around the pitch. The students roared with laughter as he continued far away from the group.

"Mr. Snape, get back here this instant!" Mrs. Pearson yelled.

"I can't control it!" he squealed, gripping the broom for dear life as his zipped past the Quidditch hoops, still flying backwards.

"Severus!" Lily called.

The poor girl sat stunned as she watched her best friend fly all across the pitch.

"Make it stop!"

Lily huffed, gripping the broom in her hand and took off after him as soon as he neared the students again.

"Miss. Evans!" Mrs. Pearson bellowed warningly.

The redheaded first year was entirely more concerned with Severus' safety than the directions of a teacher. She flew after him, matching his movements gracefully, cutting around corners to meet his spastic turns in an attempt to reach him.

"Everyone back on the ground!"

The other students followed her orders, bringing themselves back down. In amazement they watched as Lily got closer and closer to catching the snivelling boy. Claudia caught Potter's gawking stare, his eyes focused on the girl who was presently out-flying the rest of her class. He shoved Black hard with his elbow, motioning upwards with astonishment. Finally, he carefully pulled free his wand and spoke a second spell.

Severus' broom halted near the ground, the shaken boy gasping for breath as he tried to gather his bearings. Unfortunately, Lily had no warning of the sudden stop. She went crashing into the boy, sending them both rolling onto the pitch. Her broom splintered as it hit the grass before dropping, quite dead.

"Are you okay?" she asked frantically.

"Get off! I didn't need your help," Severus hissed.

He rose from the ground, pushing her aside and stormed past the shocked students, leaving the pitch.

"Evans... Evans, that was brilliant!" exclaimed Potter.

Lily rose, looking at him with tearful eyes, her face almost as angry as her posture.

"You had something to do with that, didn't you, Potter!"

"I-I... You should have _seen_ yourself!"

"He could have been hurt!"

"You were amazing!"

"You're an idiot and I hate you!"

"You weren't that great anyway!"

"That's enough!"

The attention turned back onto Mrs. Pearson, whose face had reddened and eyes were now bulging from her skull.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for Miss Evan's unruly behaviour!"

"What?" Lily protested.

"Now all of you leave this pitch before I start handing out detentions!"

The mess of first years hurried towards the exit, not wanting to lag behind and be the target of Mrs. Pearson's newfound rage.

"Oh, Claudia!" Lily cried, hugging the pale girl as soon as they were back on the trail towards Hogwarts.

Claudia stumbled backwards as she was embraced, awkwardly adjusting her arms around the crying girl.

"I was so worried," Lily cried. "I thought he was going to get hurt!"

"Well, erm, he's fine now, right?"

"I know, I know, but still!"

There was a pause, Lily continuing to cry against her stunned friend.

"You were really good out there," Claudia mumbled as Lily pulled away from her.

"Oh, you really think so?"

Her cheeks were ruddy and stained with tears, her hair still a mess from being swept every direction on her broom. Noisily she inhaled through her nose.

"Yeah, like you'd been flying your entire life."

"Thanks, Claudia."

The blonde girl sighed, walking with her emotional friend back towards the school.

* * *

Claudia stood at the bathroom sink, rinsing her hands. She had walked Lily back to the Gryffindor common room, leaving before she overheard the secret password. The Fat Lady had been moping in her portrait, and the two girls had spent the better part of fifteen minutes listening to her woes. Something about something she had overheard near some suit of armour. Claudia wasn't quite sure, she hadn't really been listening. She had been preoccupied with the shock that even paintings had drama. That, and the fact that Gryffindors only relied on a specific word to let them into their dorm, while Ravenclaws were faced with a different puzzle each time.

A short sob forced the girl to look up. Only her reflection was present in the facing mirror. She hadn't thought there was anyone else in the lavatory, or at least she hadn't heard anyone else enter. A second, more pronounced sob led her away from the sink and back over towards the stalls. Part of her wanted to simply turn around and leave. Hadn't she dealt with enough crying girls this afternoon? She had already spent most of her life dealing with an overgrown teenage girl. If everyone was going to continue spending their time crying at Hogwarts she might as well pack up and move back in with her mother.

Claudia sighed, shaking away the lonesome thoughts of Althea Corvinus.

"Hello?" she called warily.

"Oooh," the girl moaned.

"A-are you alright?"

"No! Get out of here! Or have you come back to tease me some more?"

The girl depleted into a fit of angry sobs and Claudia pushed open the stall door without warning, quite taken aback at what she found.

Sitting on the toilet was a ghost of a girl, and not in the sense of Severus being a pale ghost of a boy, but a literal ghostly girl. She sobbed into her hands, taking a shimmering translucent pigtail and wiping her eyes.

"What are you staring at?" she snapped.

Claudia could only stare at her. First her friend, then a portrait of an off-key opera singer, and now a ghost? She really didn't find herself to be the sort of person who was any good at consolation. Still, her curiosity got the best of her. Curious, she thought, since she had never read in any of her books of a student ghost inhabiting the school.

"You're dead," she stated. "Why are you so sad?"

She rose from the seat angrily, her silvery glasses staring daggers into Claudia. Quickly she lifted herself above the stalls before vanishing into the plumbing above.

Claudia watched the spot where the ghost had just disappeared for a moment. She was at least used to deadly things slinking through walls. George, the Corvinus manor feline, did it quite often. But then finally she realized that that was probably not the best thing to say to a young crying girl.

* * *

But for all of Claudia's best intentions to steer clear from her most unfavourable relatives, the task was impossible. With her new liking to Potions class, it was not uncommon to leave a bit later than the other students. Generally as she left, the dungeon halls were already filled with Slytherins, languidly walking the perimeter of their not-so-secret common room. They milled about, none of them really paying the young girl much attention. It wasn't like she was a Gryffindor or something despicable like that. But sometimes she caught the slight looks of her older cousins' friends. She saw the inkling of interest in their eyes, and it worried her how much of her history Balthazar and Desdemona had leaked. Currently, as she packed away her potion supplies, her head was filled with the upcoming Charms quiz next week. Professor Slughorn bade her goodbye and she nodded in return. He was a good teacher, a little on the impassioned side when it came to favourable students, but nonetheless relatively fair. His long moustache sometimes dangled precariously over cauldrons as he inspected the bubbling potions, causing some of the eleven year olds to giggle. Claudia had even heard of a competition to see who would be the first to burn his whiskers clear off.

As she entered the hall she went over the Charms wrist motions in her mind and paid little attention to the students around her. It wasn't until she was shoved hard in the shoulder did she realize her predicament.

Balthazar, the Avery boy from her grade, and their squashy twin friends snickered at her stumble, backing the girl against the wall as she rubbed her sore shoulder.

"Hanging around the dungeons, are we?"

Claudia stared at him with a clear grimace. A part of her was trembling to grip her wand, but she wasn't quite sure what she would do with it.

"And what have we learnt today? Care to teach us a lesson, Miss Ravenclaw know-it-all?"

Her mouth went dry and she looked over his shoulder, only to see Desdemona casually passing with a tall Slytherin girl. The dark haired Greengrass merely glanced at her cornered younger cousin, continuing her path with sombre eyes as though nothing was going on. Claudia almost wretched at her dismissal.

One of the twins grabbed her books from her arms, lurching them down the corridor with brute female force.

"A brainy bitch like you doesn't need books," Balthazar continued, snickering.

He shoved her by the shoulders again.

"What are you gonna do about it?"

He shoved her a third time, harder.

"Well? You stupid little Squibling."

Claudia was frozen, paralyzed from fighting back. She couldn't even open her mouth to utter any sort of defiant. They had her cornered, Avery now taking his turn in pushing her backwards against the wall. Balthazar pulled his wand free, waving it threateningly before her eyes.

"Nothing?" he questioned angrily at her lack of response. "Well then... Expulsum!"

Suddenly her eyes teared, her nose aching as if she had just been punched in the face. Blood spurted from her nostrils and she had to cup her hands around the excess pouring to keep from making a complete mess of herself. The Slytherins hooted with laughter, taking their leave and moving back down the hall. Their heckles echoed inside of the stone dungeon walls.

Claudia sputtered as blood trickled down the back of her throat. She groaned, removing her hands to stare at the dark red drips.

"Merlin! What happened to you?"

She looked up, almost embarrassedly, to see Fletcher McKinnon gawking at her blood-soaked face and hands.

"Are you okay?"

"No."

"You should probably go to the infirmary."

"Where is dat?" she mumbled through her stuffed nose.

Awkwardly she knelt over to pick up her books, then realized she would only get them covered in blood. Fletcher continued talking, picking up the scattered material for her.

"Oh, okay, I'll take you. Who were those Slytherin jerks?"

"My cousin."

"Blimey!" he cried as they walked towards the infirmary. "Your cousin! He's a right jerk. Most of the Slytherins are complete knobs. Lot of them have been heckling my family, since they're all in Gryffindor. Two cousins and my sister Marlene, and _I _get put into Ravenclaw, can you believe it?"

Claudia nodded, the pressure on her sinuses causing her eyes to tear until her vision was blurry. Slowly, the blood on her face and hands was beginning to dry and flake off.

"We're almost there," Fletcher announced as they climbed a set of rotating stairs. "I've been there once before. I sprained my wrist the other day, but they fixed it up pretty fast."

Claudia was about to ask why, but was cut off by a group of approaching boys.

"McKinnon, mate, where ya been?" asked Potter. "What happened to you, _Corvinus_?"

Great, they knew her name. Now all that was left was a supplementary flying class and she would be history. Maybe Lily would be decent enough to chase after her when Potter and his friends began throwing hexes at her broom.

Fletcher barely glanced at Claudia, loudly announcing that she had been attacked by a gang of Slytherins.

"Which ones?" asked Potter. "Which way did they go?"

A boy standing behind the cocky group leader, who Claudia hadn't seen before, said something lowly to Sirius Black and they began to snicker. He was short and slim, as most eleven year old boys were, but had a certain raggedness about him. His brown hair was meticulously combed but his eyes were tired, his face pale and worn, dangerous-looking scars stretching out from beneath the collar of his shirt. Black looked at Claudia and she looked away, her gaze teetering over the edge of the stone banister.

"Her cousin and his friends," Fletcher continued shamelessly. "They beat her up and left her for dead in the dungeons!"

"Looks like just a nosebleed," said Black.

"She didn't even fight them off! She just stood there!"

"Well," began Potter. "We can't all be Gryffindors."

The four boys laughed and Fletcher shifted awkwardly. Obviously his story wasn't making as big of an impact on them as he would have liked.

"Well I told them to get lost, and they ran, now I'm taking her to the nurse."

The brown haired boy rolled his eyes with a grin, and the short one she knew as Peter Pettigrew imitated his actions.

"Right, well, I've been meaning to have a chat with you," began Potter.

Immediately all five pairs of eyes turned towards Claudia and she looked to each boy anxiously. Finally taking the cue, she slowly turned and traveled further down the hall and away from the now conspiring group of first years. She glanced over towards them once in a while, sometimes met with a suspicious glare before she would turn away as she waited to be escorted to the Hospital Wing. A medium-sized portrait caught her eye and Claudia approached it, bending closer to examine the tiny girl depicted.

She was small, too small to identify any features other than the girl's light blue dress. Slowly the figure began walking away from Claudia, down a dirt road that led to a dense forest. Slightly taken aback, Claudia moved away from the painting. It was still going to take her a while to get used to Hogwarts' moving portraits. She had hardly experienced them before, her grandfather not being a fan of keeping old pictures around.

Turning she was met with the not-so-silent laughter of the five boys and Fletcher hopped back towards her.

"Here," he said, dumping her books into her arms with a bright smile. "I'm going to go hang out with them. The Hospital Wing is just at the end of the hall, you'll find it."

He bounced back towards the group of boys and off they were, leaving Claudia alone in the middle of the hall. She turned and looked back at the portrait, but the woman was gone, then turned again and headed towards the infirmary.


	5. And a Very Happy Birthday to You

_"I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth." Ovid, **Metamorphoses**_

* * *

"She bent over and I could see this thong sticking out the top of her jeans, all red and lacy. She turns around and, I shit you not, she looks like she's about to snog me or something."

The four boys sat in the abandoned corridor, a cold wind blustering through the glassless windows with an autumn chill. The fourteen year olds lounged around, rolling cigarettes, listening to Sirius Black explain how a very nice and much older Muggle woman had taken his virginity over the summer. Looking back, only when they were much older, would they realize how perverted and illegal the act actually was. But for now their dark haired friend was describing the female anatomy with such fervour and accuracy it had the young teenagers absolutely enthralled. It was dark, nearing eleven o'clock in the evening. Anytime after dinner these halls were usually cleared out, especially as the weather grew colder. It had become a safe spot for the Marauders to sit outside of their common room, which was close by anyway. Lupin brought his clumsily fashioned cigarette to his mouth and lit it with the end of his wand.

"So I'm holding on to her hips. Right in my face she's got these huge-"

A voice cleared itself from a little ways down the dimly lit hall and the four boys looked over at a not so amused redhead.

"You can't seriously be smoking in here."

"Calm your knickers, Evans, you're not a Prefect _quite_ yet."

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips. From behind her emerged her blonde and slight friend, who regarded the boys with little interest.

"I could very well go get a Prefect for you."

"Oh," Potter began. "You wouldn't do that."

He was the only one who did not smoke. He had tried it once, only resulting in a bad cough and being the butt of the joke for the rest of his friends. Also, Lily didn't like it.

"What are you two doing roaming around at this hour anyway?" asked Lupin.

"I don't know why you'd care, but Claudia and I were just helping Slughorn with something in the dungeons."

Black lifted his eyebrows suggestively.

"Really now? Just helping out old Slughorn?"

Claudia rolled her eyes, not even the slightest grin biting at her lips. She looked towards him but he was busy laughing with that short fellow. When Sirius looked back she had already turned her attention elsewhere. He could not see it in her features, but it was like she could feel his laughter and it fluttered in the pit of her stomach. He had changed over the summer, and begrudingly she admitted to herself that she had noticed right away. He was now the tallest of his friends, his shoulders already squaring with post pubescant manliness. She could practically feel the crazed confidence in his eyes, he reeked of it. Sirius Black had never been the nicest of the Marauders, but it was quickly becoming apparent to the girls of Hogwarts that he would be the most saught after. Despite his young boy vulgarities.

"...I'm not going to get a Prefect but you really shouldn't be doing that here."

Lily turned, her friend in stride beside her, and they made their way out of the corridor.

"Those stupid gits," she muttered. "They're going to get themselves caught eventually, and if we're lucky enough maybe expelled."

Not much had changed in the past few years at Hogwarts. Claudia and Lily had grown closer, but as had she with her roommates, the Baum twins. The only downside to being friends with Lily was that wherever she was, Severus was usually close behind. Claudia did not care much for Lily's childhood friend but she had learned to ignore his rude remarks and his off-putting demeanour.

The redheaded girl was quite clever for her age. She had noticed her friend getting more and more withdrawn with each passing year. Lily knew the reason, she was probably one of the few who did, but it was like the subject had a clear taboo and they were not to discuss it. Only once had she seen Claudia Corvinus cry, back in beginnings of their second year, and it had damn near broken Lily's heart.

The beginning of their fourth year had started without much activity, but little did they know this was about to change. The world around them was shifting, in a sense. They were getting older, more aware of their surroundings and beginning to understand that with all the greatness and goodness magic could produce, it could have the exact opposite effects just as easily. Even this late September was colder than normal, darker than what they remembered from their first years at Hogwarts. They remembered the warmth of the Great Hall at dinner time, the excitement of learning new charms and potion techniques, that smug look being wiped off the Marauders' faces whenever they got caught pulling pranks or skipping classes... This was all changing. Weary from long classes and countless homework assignments they trudged into the Great Hall for dinner with little enthusiasm. The magic they learned was growing more and more technical as they were expected to begin specializing in a few choice subjects. And the Marauders were practically revered among their peers as Gods, much to the chagrin of Lily and her friends.

As Claudia walked Lily back to Gryffindor tower, she was excited at the prospect of sleep and just getting the next day over with.

Lily must have been reading Claudia's mind. She stopped a few feet away from the Fat Lady's portrait and looked at her watch. Smiling, she pulled her friend into a tight hug with the giddiness of a fourteen year old girl.

"I know it's not quite twelve yet," she began happily. "But happy birthday anyway. Oh, you're going to love my gift, I already know it. No, no, don't make that face. I don't much care if you pretend you don't like presents, you're going to like this."

There was something almost mischievous in Lily's eyes as she bade her friend goodnight and left Claudia to her lonely thoughts as she began her walk towards the Ravenclaw common room.

* * *

"Who does he think he is? It's barely been a month and I'm so bogged down with homework I've barely had time to sneak out and ride my broom! What does he expect, a bloody novel? I don't have time for all that, I didn't come here thinking I'd need that kind of dedication to bloody _Charms_. That Flitwick has it out for us, I swear. Maybe I'll get lucky enough to break my bloody wrist on the bloody pitch so I won't have to deal with anymore of his bloody bull-"

"It's just a log, calm down."

The fiery half of the Baum twins rolled her eyes at her sister, but Kayla continued.

"We're just recording our progress, like a journal, it's not even due until the end of the year. And don't you even think about trying to cram all that in within the last week of school."

"Watch me. I'll still get a better mark than you, too," Kari said with fierce competitiveness. "But seriously what am I supposed to do all year, _read_?"

"It would be a good start," snorted Kayla.

The Great Hall seemed especially busy this morning. The first month had gone by with relative ease, but the day before something noteworthy had finally taken place. Professor Keurig, the slow-moving Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, had reportedly been assaulted while harvesting tweedle vine in the forest. It had left the older man so shaken he was presently still recovering in the Hospital Wing.

"I heard it was centaurs!" a noisy third year exclaimed. "He was gettin' a little too close for their comfort so they showed him up for it."

"No way, it was definitely the hags."

"Could have been a troll."

"Or maybe a blood-sucking bugbear?"

"It could have been Merlin himself for all we know, either way I think this qualifies as the shortest serving Dark Arts teacher in history."

Ah yes, Claudia had been witness to the supposedly cursed position. Professors didn't last more than a year at a time teaching that subject. In her head she could hear her grandfather's voice dismissing it as trivial superstition. Maybe if they stopped believing in it so much Dumbledore wouldn't have to keep wasting his time hiring new Professors.

"OOOOOHHHHH! Riddle me this and Riddle me that, it's the only position he couldn't get at!"

The troublesome spectre suddenly emerged from a large bowl of scrambled eggs, dutifully showering the nearby Ravenclaws in the yellow breakfast food. Thankfully, not at the table end where Claudia and her friends sat. Kari began snorting with laughter, even Kayla cracked a small giggle as the poltergeist rose from the table. With a handful of eggs he continued pelting nearby students.

"Little Riddle, little Riddle! Even meaner than you bird-brained Claws!"

"Peeves!" groaned an older girl Claudia knew to be a Prefect as she tried pulling egg from her curly hair.

The squat ghost began to squawk loudly at them, causing the rest of the Great Hall to laugh at their eggy peril. Without stopping for even a breath he zipped out the main doors, his loud bird noises echoing down the corridors.

"What a nuisance," tutted Kayla, still giggling.

Claudia turned back to her breakfast but it was soon after that a second distraction tore at the attention of the students. Hoots and flapping wings filled the air above them as the daily owl post service began making its rounds. Claudia was still transfixed by the dozens of owls, all varying in size and colour and wobbliness. They would swoop down low, dispersing their letters and parcels to their respective students, then rise back up and disappear in the direction of what must have been the owlery. Much to her surprise, a bulging letter dropped in front of Claudia's eyes. She should not have been too surprised though, given what day it was. Her roommates stared at her expectantly and Claudia began to open the letter.

_September 21, 1974_

_Dear Claudia,_

_I apologize for not having written sooner, your aunt has been most impatient with wanting to hear about your new year at Hogwarts. I assumed that you would have been enjoying the short rest from us. Happy birthday, and please write your aunt soon. Enclosed is a small gift from us. It was your mother__'__s._

_Regards,_

_Your Grandfather,_

_Waldrom Vincent Corvinus_

Claudia poured the contents of the envelope into her hand, a small neatly wrapped parcel and a single galleon falling out.

"Presents from your admirer?" Kari asked with a grin.

"It's from my grandfather."

Kayla smiled broadly and began rummaging through her bag.

"We were going to wait until later, but happy birthday, Claudia. Ah, where did I put it..."

Kari reached into her sister's bag for her with an impatient lurch and retrieved a medium-sized box with a sparkling silver ribbon bowed on top.

"Don't open it now," Kari instructed. "Wait until later. But I'd like to see your reaction when you do so if you open it and we're not there to see then so help me Merlin, Corvinus..."

Claudia grinned despite herself. Even as she dreaded her birthday and the attention it brought upon her she knew that her friends would always make her smile. The last thing she wanted was for Kayla to go out of her way and organize some sort of small birthday bash, but just like every year she was fairly certain that's what would be awaiting her that evening.

"Are you going to open your other gift?" Kayla asked.

Claudia shrugged, slipping the small present from her grandfather and great aunt into her bag.

"Later. We should get going to Herbology."

Really, Claudia did not want to open the package. She did not want to rip the delicate paper and be forced to admire some kind of sad thought of her mother.

* * *

_Standing on the cluttered platform, this woman stood out. She was tall and thin and beautiful as most people only witnessed in art or created in their mind. The old man beside her was even taller, almost towering around the awaiting cluster of middle aged witches and wizards. This woman was barely thirty five and did not dress in robes like those around her, but the everyday Muggle clothing wizards had a hard time reflecting. Her blonde hair was long and flipped to the sides, as was the style at the time. Despite her seemingly calm composure there was a nervousness in her eyes as she took in the unfamiliar surroundings. The Hogwarts Express chuffed to a halt and Claudia knew that many interested and even disapproving stares would be on this woman, who now scanned the compartment windows with her lovely blue eyes._

_A low and immature cat call filled the twelve year old girl's ears. Some nearby boy who was obviously not at all regarding this unknown specimen disapprovingly._

"_Isn't that your grandfather?" asked Kayla._

"_Then who's that lady?" asked Kari._

_A lump formed in Claudia's throat and she felt as if she would never be able to breath again, let alone form words. Something she dreaded was now regarding her from outside the train with a bright and happy smile. She wanted to crawl away under one of the seats, close her eyes, and hope that the train would bring her back to Hogwarts. Unwillingly she spoke between tight lips._

"_My mother."_

* * *

Just as expected, when Claudia arrived at the Ravenclaw common room with the Baum twins in tow, she was ambushed by Lily's arms as the girl pulled her into a tight hug. Claudia did not know how Lily could go about entering their common room, even being escorted by her Ravenclaw peers. Everyone just seemed to like the girl's bright eyes and optimistic attitude and it seemed impossible for her to ever be on anyone's bad side. Claudia knew that entrance to each common room reflected the priorities of the respective House by way of puzzle or password. She had developed the theory that maybe entrance was only allowed if that prized trait was recognized in whomever was trying to enter. It was possible that Lily was just smart, and so the enchantments surrounding the tower did not effect her. Claudia also suspected it had something to do with the fact that Lily had convinced Slughorn to let the current Head Boy, a seventh year Ravenclaw student by the name of Marcus Aldrin, into the Potions classrooms after hours to study so that he could successfully complete his O.W.L.s. She honestly did not know if Lily was just secretly a genius, garnering people's trust so that she could do whatever she wanted, or if she was just genuinely that nice.

"I got the house elves to bake you a cake this year, look!" Lily said excitedly.

Of course she did, Claudia thought with a small smile.

The Ravenclaw common room could be described as formal at first glance. Perched on one of the higher Hogwarts towers its many arched windows allowed for numerous brass telescopes and an open, airy feel. Porcelain white busts of former famous Ravenclaws adorned the perimeter of the large circular room. While at the beginning of every year it was spotless and organized, it did not take long for the bookish students to litter the empty table tops with parchment and spell books and empty ink bottles.

The evening progressed slowly, the girls eating cake and chatting. They flipped through the pages of Witches Weekly to gawk at the terrible advice they gave to young girls and secretly admire the moving portraits of the famous warlocks. A few first years sat on the opposite side of the room, talking lowly. Thomas O'Reilly, a fellow fourth year, spent the hours staring between a telescope and his astronomy homework with such frustration it looked as though he might cry. Astrid Entwhistle had stumbled into the common room a little later on, her cheeks and hair smudged with soot. Another terrible experiment gone wrong, they all thought, knowing they were right even if they didn't ask her what had happened. Everyone had become accustom to Astrid looking and acting a little on the strange side.

"This was outside. I'd pretend it was from me since it would be exciting to give you a secret gift, but it's not."

Everyone watched as Claudia took the mystery package from her fourth roommate. Her name had been crudely written on a ripped bit of parchment and glued to the front of the gift but there was no clue as to who it could be from.

"I was right about you having hordes of admirers, wasn't I?" said Kari. "You better open that right this second."

Gently, she began tearing at the paper, all eyes watching with interest. They had used yesterday's Daily Prophet as wrapping, something that was custom between the Hogwarts students. Nobody filled their trunks with rolls of wrapping paper and bows and ribbons (well maybe Kayla did) to decorate gifts between friends. Claudia recognized the black and white image, half hidden between the folds as current Minister for Magic Alistair Sinclair. She pulled at the edges and revealed the thick red leather spine that seemed akin to a textbook. _Quidditch Through the Ages_, it read.

"WHAT?"

Kari took the book from Claudia, who gave little protest, and held it before her.

"This... This hasn't even been released yet. How the hell did someone get a copy of this? I've been on the wait list for months! It's not supposed to come out until February!"

Her eyes widened with disbelief as if she were holding the Holy Grail in her hands.

"You can keep it."

"No, no, no I couldn't do that, it's your gift after all."

"No offence to whoever, but I don't think Claudia's going to be reading a book on Quidditch anytime soon," Lily laughed.

"Are you serious?"

Kari's stare bore into Claudia with such seriousness it was bordering on deadly.

"Of course," Claudia said.

Kari smiled broadly as she hugged the book close to her chest. Claudia opened the rest of her gifts, quietly giving her thanks to her friends. From Lily she received a thick woolly scarf, soft and dark blue. Funny, it didn't seem to fit with the amused look she had given her the night previous. From Kari and Kayla, another book but this time one she might actually enjoy, _Broken Balls: When Fortunes Turn Foul_. Claudia had made clear her disdain for astrology and Divination class, and as Kayla explained this book was chocked full of humorous anecdotes about poor psychic readings and the people who believed in them a little too strongly. Lastly, from Astrid, a pair of what looked to be homemade earrings with slimy and squirming slugs. The smell was awful but Claudia was good at hiding any expression. Apparently they were ambrosial worms, and they were very good luck.

* * *

"It's just a bit further."

Lily led Claudia down the narrow passage, their wands illuminating the space only a couple of feet in front of them. She was obviously more uneasy with walking around at night without permission than Claudia, nervously checking over her shoulder even though the only echoing footsteps were their own. Claudia also guessed that her true birthday present was about to be revealed. Lily had waited until the party had disbanded to quietly usher her friend out of the common room, announcing that Claudia should walk her back to Gryffindor tower. But this was not the way to Gryffindor tower. She had lead her away from the main corridors, up a steep set of stairs that looked as though they hadn't been climbed in ages, and now down this ominous hall.

"Severus showed me this place last week," she said with a smile, reliving some happy memory. "I know you don't believe me but he's actually very sweet. It's those Slytherins he hangs out with all the time, I don't trust them. I'm not saying that all Slytherins are bad, but this lot seems just a touch too rotten for my liking."

Upon reaching the end of the hall, Lily raised her wand to the solid looking wooden door.

"Alohamora."

Claudia had no idea what to expect as they ventured into the small room, the restless sound of flitting wings suddenly immersing the girls. Hundreds of what looked to be large orange moths cut into the air, one immediately landing itself on Claudia's head.

"They're Flitterbys. They were barely moving before, some had died, it must be getting cold for them. I put my best heating charm on the room to keep them cozy. I think they're absolutely beatiful."

A pair of luminescent orange wings landed on Lily's outstretched hand and she stroked the insect lovingly. Claudia did not know what to think. Sure, they were pretty, but go to all this trouble just to keep some bugs alive? It was something she couldn't understand. The moth in her hair had long since left and they seemed to circle her friend admiringly while leaving the straight faced girl quite alone. She could see the reflection of the warmly glowing moths in her friend's happy eyes and it was like a foreign warmth was spreading in Claudia's chest.

"Why don't you get a pet?"

"Oh, I've always wanted a cat or something, something warm and fuzzy. I always dreamed of a tabby or a mutt. Tuney's allergic though."

Claudia shrugged. "What do you care?"

Something sad was edging at the corners of Lily's teary eyes but she immediately smiled. She always teared up whenever her sister was mentioned, no matter the context. But the bitter half of the two Evans girls hadn't spoken to the other in years. Lily never moaned about it but it was obvious the distance wasn't to her liking.

"I couldn't," she said slowly, her attention turning back to her mass of glowing Flitterbys.

"Well, well, well..."

The voice snapped the girls' attention away from the moths and back around to the only door. It stood ajar, but in the process of being pushed open as four mischievious boys entered the room.

"Two nights in a row?" commented Black. "What are the chances? Must be your lucky week, James."

Potter's arm swung out to backhand his best mate in the chest. Lily's eyes slanted in their direction.

"What do you want?"

The four boys all exchanged glances, seemingly suddenly nervous as Lily and Claudia regarded them.

"You're not the only ones good at tiptoeing around past bedtime," Lupin said quite defensively.

"Yeah, not like we're here intentionally," spat out Pettigrew.

"Or maybe we are, that's none of your business!" said Lupin.

"We'll do what we like!" said Pettigrew.

"What are _you_ doing here?!"

"Think you can just go about as you please, asking everyone all these questions?"

"It's right nosey of you!"

"Why don't you go home to Snivellus Maxiums and leave us alone?!"

"Yeah! What he said!"

"We need some Flitterby wings," Potter admitted.

"Are you daft? They don't need to know that!"

"What exactly are you planning on doing with these wings?" Lily asked, arms crossed tightly across her chest.

"Now that really is none of your business."

"Yeah, Evans. You and Corvinus here can move along now."

"You're not touching Lily's Flitterbys."

The usually silent girl now had all eyes on her. No, she did not care for the overgrown bugs fluttering around the windowless room. Nor did she care about whatever Potter and his friends were up to. She did care about Lily though, and the small tremor in her voice at the prospect of these stupid boys ripping apart the contents of her most prized and secretive place.

"What are you going to do about it, Fridgid Knickers?"

Black had taken a step closer to the girls, the stupid nickname he'd concocted echoing among the hundreds of flapping wings.

"They're not yours."

"Neither are they yours," he scoffed.

Claudia's features hardened as he stood over her. He smelt like the forest and the autumn air and god, she was quickly loosing her head.

"Come now, don't be so mean. I'll show you a good time."

The devlish wink he shot at her caused her to gulp. The embaressment must have been plain on her features because all four boys immediately began hooting with laughter.

"You're an ass," said Lily. "I know you're up to something but I don't much care to be honest."

She looped arms with her frozen friend and pushed past the four boys, her eyebrows furrowed in a frown. Lily walked quickly away from them, lighting her wand with one short word and continuing down the dark hall.

"Those stupid... Better just to walk away before I hex them all into infinity," she mumbled mostly to herself.

Claudia was still slightly red, Black's words ringing in her ears. As she lay in bed later that night she mulled between the upcoming Transfiguration test and the short meeting between herself and the four boys. She had tried to console Lily but honestly wasn't very good at consolation. They would go back tomorrow and make sure that no one had touched her private Flitterby sanctuary. Suddenly and without notice a very different thought began creeping at the edges of Claudia's mind. She wondered who the mystery gift giver was. In her adolescent thoughts she sighed and fell asleep picturing a certain jerk with dark hair.


	6. Death Becomes Her

The young girl's head was buried between the thick pages of a large leather bound book. With her thin finger she traced the edges of the map she was currently inspecting. The large Common Welsh Green dragon depicted on the British Isles stared back out at the reader with wide eyes before slowly twisting its tail around its back legs and screeching out towards the Atlantic ocean.

An incessant squawking was distracting the ten year old girl. Slowly she closed her eyes, trying to block out the horrid noise of her great aunt's raven. Nearly every day it would sit in its cage and scream at the top of its lungs. Her grandfather was currently out at the shops; usually he would be so kind as to place a reverse silencing charm on the dusty library for her. She only had to wait another year until she had her own wand and she could shut out the world herself without having to wait for anyone to come to her aid. Usually Belle, the large and bitter black bird, would quiet down at the sight of Sylvie but Claudia guessed that her aunt was nowhere near her noisy pet. She tried turning back to her book but could not focus with that stupid bird. Silently she reeled with frustration.

Claudia did not understand why anyone would keep a bird in a cage. It was unnatural to her. But even when the cage door was open Belle would not stir from her perch. The raven might sit atop her great aunt's shoulder but other than that she hardly left the cage. Her own fault then, Claudia thought. She didn't care for pets too much, the only domesticated creature she had ever known affection for being George, the old house's dead cat. As if on cue George slinked out from between two bookshelves and approached the girl anxiously. She could tell that she was not the only one Belle bothered. Almost deploringly the silvery feline stared at the girl and Claudia frowned, her hands gripping her book tightly. She just needed that bird to quit its squawking, just for a little while, just long enough for her to regain her focus and not have to imagine the horrible things that should happen to that bird. George lay on the ground at her feet, defeated, eyes closed as if he were wishing the raven away like the rest of them.

The young girl wanted to go find her aunt, march right up to her and tell her exactly what she thought of her 'precious Belle.' She closed her eyes again, tighter this time. She focused on the small silence the bird allowed for as it drew in enough breath to continue its horrible screeching. Something dark brewed in her mind, in the hollows of her chest, and Claudia could not contain what felt like a sudden burst. It was like her mind had screamed its loudest most frustrated scream and the silence following the thought was heavenly. She almost smiled to herself before her eyes grew wide with horror at the sound now ringing a floor beneath her. It was another shriek, not from her or her mind or that stupid bird, but her aunt. Abandoning the book she scurried over to the door, following the sounds of Sylvie's loud sobs until she found herself outside of her aunt's small drawing room. Belle was silent, for now, but any sound she could have been making was drowned out by Claudia's hysterical aunt.

"My Belle, my Belle..."

She peered through the crack in the door, seeing Sylvie's sobbing shoulders and that stupid bird lying quite still and quite dead at the bottom of its cage.

* * *

Claudia was currently up to her elbows in potting soil. Mud, muck, probably dragon dung or fertilizer from another animal. At these times she didn't really want to know. She attempted to sift through the large metal bin as Madame Sprout had instructed, but she was finding the task futile. Beside her, Astrid had long since pulled forth the bowknuckle root they sought. The ivory piece of plant was soft and laying in a tray in front of them, small glittering specks shining in the sunlight.

"Come on, there should be plenty to go around!"

Madame Sprout wasn't one to loose her patience, but the half hour her inept students had spent digging around was proving tedious. She made her way around the greenhouse to pass the time, encouraging her students to 'just keep digging!'

"Try letting it come to you," Astrid suggested.

"It's a plant, it's not going to just _come_ to me."

Claudia was getting frustrated. She hated Herbology and the smell of the greenhouse; it would be fair to say that it was her least favourite subject. She never seemed to have any luck with living things anyway, and could care less about the various species of poplars.

"My, still no luck?"

She turned to meet Sprout's sigh and pulled her hands from out of the muck. By their second year most of them were taller than the squat Herbology professor. Claudia's eyes met the brim of her floppy hat as the teacher looked down into the bin.

"I know that you've been having some trouble, Miss Corvinus. This evening I'm holding a small extra help class in Greenhouse 2. It's not mandatory, but I strongly suggest you be there for seven."

Claudia nodded shortly. Sure, not mandatory unless she wanted to be held back a year over some stupid flowers. Her temples began to pound with a headache. Sprout turned and began heading towards the top of the class. From the corner of her eye, Claudia saw Astrid slip her small piece of bowknuckle into the pocket of her skirt. She wouldn't ask, she wouldn't even mention it. She just hoped her slightly airy roommate didn't blow herself up with whatever she was planning.

"Alright, alright, I think you've all had quite enough!" Sprout shouted. "_Dictato_."

The short incantation caused a piece of chalk to raise to the blackboard, neatly scribing the lesson out behind her.

"The first recorded use of bowknuckle root was in 1433, where..."

Claudia grabbed a nearby rag and began wiping her arms clean, Sprout's words growing quieter and quieter until she had been blocked out almost entirely. A few students awkwardly balanced parchment and quills and ink bottles on their laps to jot down today's lesson. Ravenclaws, always the keenest to succeed. Claudia wondered for a moment if whether they were all as smart as their house boasted, or if this attribute was so forced upon them that they were pressured into doing well in their studies. This lesson in particular could easily be found in their Herbology text book. She wouldn't wrestle with notes when she knew perfectly well that the material would be better learned sitting at a desk, alone in the library. What a comforting thought that was, being alone with hundreds of books in a quiet room.

The noise of the greenhouse seemed to swell back up and ring in her ears, and Claudia quietly began trying to nurse her welling headache.

* * *

"M-My Lord?"

The voice echoed out into the dark cavern with a pitiful tremor. The tall, dark wizard brought his lit wand before his face, trying to better illuminate the scene in front of him. Water surrounded every inch of the small stone island. Silently, Crius Greengrass wondered why he had even come to this dank hell hole. The boat that had carried him across the seemingly deep lake to this little plot of rock had disappeared beneath the black waves. Cronus should be doing his own dirty work, the middle aged man thought bitterly. Why was he always having to run around on his brother's errands? Crius would have rather been at the Dragon's Dungeon, a stiff drink in his hand and a pretty witch in his lap. A witch that would no doubt cost him a few galleons, but would still be better than whatever urchin lurked the nooks and crannies of Knockturn Alley. Sweat beaded along his brow and he nearly smiled at the thought of a comforting woman.

"You've arrived."

Crius practically leapt at the voice that now greeted him. His black robes seemed to materialize from the lake itself as the pale wizard emerged from the darkness. He was even more frightening in person, Crius thought before he could stop himself. The Dark Lord seemed to hear his thoughts, the ends of his mouth curving upwards into something that resembled a smile.

"I, er... Yes."

Crius was not like his younger brother. Not a psychopath, he often scoffed. Yes he was most certainly the product of an ancient pureblooded family, there was no doubt about that, but he lacked a certain gusto that seemed to take over the minds of anyone he had talked to about the wizard now in front of him. Coward, soft, idiot, waif, weak, useless... Further and further he sunk into the bottom of a bottle until he could no longer remember every name he had been called. The unshaven scruff on his cheeks and chin, his slightly bloodshot eyes, all the products of a six day binge at some of the most ill-reputed bars in London. That was mainly how he heard the fantastical stories about the one they called the Dark Lord. How he had a giant snake which followed him everywhere. How he feasted on children like a hag. How he planned to cleanse the wizarding world from the piss and filth; lousy excuses for magical folk they called Mudbloods in seething tones. Even how he was hardly a man, how his pure power had evolved him into something else entirely. Nonsense, Crius had said, shaking his head. This was a man born of myth and destined to be fawned over by a mass of once noble and now disgruntled wizards and witches. Even a drunk from the pits of Knockturn Alley could see that. But he had been warned quite gravely about his tone in front of the _Lord_. Crius was no stranger to the evils of the magical world and he did not intend on pissing off yet another darkly cloaked man.

"Cronus said you wanted some information on the Corvinus girl?"

The dark wizard took a few steps forward and Crius gulped. For all the myth, he was still finding this man scary as fuck.

"I have information. What I require are details."

The ragged man remembered the exact words his brother had said to him, and carefully he tried to repeat the information out loud.

"Hogwarts, fourth year, Ravenclaw, good with Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Mother's a squib, dead, father unknown..."

The other man had been regarding his informant with little interest until his eyes alit with the last piece of material.

"The father is known."

Crius looked surprised. He didn't think anyone in the family knew of that bastard girl's father, so how did this creep? He decided not to press the matter. He really didn't care. God he needed a drink.

"This is little more than gossip," he hissed. "Any recent occurrence regarding her _condition_?"

Crius shook his head, avoiding having to look the other wizard in the eye, who gave a slight sigh at his response. The man turned, facing outwards towards his cavernous black sea.

"Children must be nurtured, do you not think so?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Power must be held in delicate balance for one so young, so soft and impressionable. But its importance must be instilled at an early age. What are we without power? Mudbloods, Muggles, _squibs_." His tongue revolted on the last word more so than the others. "Alas you are weak, Greengrass, that is obvious, but you are no doubt useful. When the time comes I will call on you, and I would hope for your sake that next time you will have something of interest to tell. How privileged Cronus and yourself must feel, this specimen entering your bloodline in just a few years."

The silence that followed was thick, but Crius could have sworn he could hear whispers surrounding the small islet. He could not see it, but his Dark Lord's eyes were closed as he convened with the near-absent voices.

"Inform your brother not to become too attached to this proposal."

Had Crius heard right? Was this wizard lord really intending on stopping the marriage between his nephew and that witch? He could, quite clearly, remember the fire in his brother's eyes when they received the news that this daughter of a squib existed. This would crush poor Cronus, Crius laughed to himself.

"Tell him I may have other plans for her instead."

Still staring out at the darkness, Voldemort began to laugh.

* * *

Dinner was abuzz later that day. Claudia and the Baum twins walked into the Great Hall only to be met with a blast of chatter from their fellow students. Her headache had persisted long after Herbology, through the remainder of her afternoon classes, and would certainly continue with the noisy racket now engulfing her. None of the meals were ever this lively, but as the girls took their seats the source of the commotion finally became apparent.

"Look up at the head table," Terrance Phillips, a fellow fourth year Ravenclaw, nodded in the appropriate direction.

The girls turned, scanning over the teachers and Headmaster until they reached a not so familiar face.

"Who's that?" asked Kari.

The woman, possibly in her late twenties, smiled as if she knew she were being watched. She was sitting prettily, her large eyes flickering out towards the students.

"I don't think Professor Keurig's coming back," said Kayla.

The attack on the older Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had long since lost its lustre in the three weeks following the incident. The students had no doubt found other, juicier gossip in the meantime. McGonagall and Slughorn had been filling in in his absence, but this new witch seemed to be official proof that Keurig was gone for good.

Food appeared and without hesitation the students began to fill their plates, only stopping when the Headmaster rose and clinked his glass. It took longer than normal for the excited populous to calm themselves before Dumbledore could speak.

"As some of you may have noticed, this table has been graced with a new member. Although his stay was short, it is with sadness that I announce the departure of Professor Keurig. In his place I would formally like to introduce Professor Honey as your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

She rose, waving and smiling brightly at the polite applause she received from the students. Her hair was light brown, parted at the side and flipped over her shoulders.

"At least we get a looker as opposed to that old Keurig," Kari laughed.

"I am sure that you will make her position here a happy one, and maybe she'll stay a touch longer than the others."

Dumbledore smiled at his own joke, raising his glass to toast the new teacher just as she began to take her seat.

"I'll show her a happy position!"

Kari practically shot pumpkin juice out of her nose. The Hall erupted into laughter at whichever student was ballsy enough to make that joke, and Claudia was sure she'd heard it come from either the Hufflepuffs of Gryffindors. Immediately both Ogg and Filch jumped to their feet to survey the crowd and try to point out the perpetrator but they had little luck. The students continued to chuckle until Professor Honey herself stood, her own tinkling laughter ringing out across the hall like tiny bells.

"I may be young, but in my time I've faced boggarts, pixies, every dragon known to wizarding kind, goblins, hags, trolls, shrakes, snakes and jobberknolls," she counted on each finger before pausing for a breath. "Dementors, gargoyles, doxies, ghouls, ghosts, spectres, poltergeist, acromantula, vampires, imps and even once a yeti," she laughed before turning quite serious. "I'm not afraid of teenage boys."

McGonagall turned, her face aligned with her signature slight look before giving the newcomer an approving nod. Dispersed laughter now filled the Hall and Claudia turned away from the head table. She closed her eyes, her fingers at her temples as she attempted to massage out the tremors that wracked through her cranium. Happily everyone began to eat, but the gnawing sensation at the edges of Claudia's mind prevented her from accepting this happy feast.

* * *

When night descended over the old castle, Hogwarts seemed to glow even brighter. Unfamiliar sounds from the forest wafted through open windows and corridors. The moonlight caused pebbles and puddles and little droplets alike to shine. Even the great, giant squid at the bottom of the lake began to stretch its tentacles in preparation for the evening's fish feast. It was a well known fact that students were not to be up at this hour, no excuses. But despite the warnings instilled by a long line of Caretakers, it was never uncommon to catch a glimpse of house colours as the rule breaker hurried along in the darkened halls. Filch, the seemingly ever present figure to Hogwarts' night shift, was always as diligent as could be with these short clues as to whom in particular was out this late. His lantern swung out in front of him, his feeble arm shaking with its weight. It was considerably early still, only eleven o'clock or so, and his years of experience told him that the real big fish wouldn't be out until midnight.

Most of the students often wondered when, and if, Filch ever slept.

"Shut it, I think I see him."

The four boys halted at the corner, each head poking around in a vertical row as they momentarily inspected the impasse. The lantern light cast eerie shadows between the moving portraits and expertly the clever students came up with a plan.

"Ooohhh..." moaned Lupin, hands clutching his abdomen as he rounded the corner.

"Hey! Who's that? What are you doing out of bed?"

"The nurse, ooh I need the nurse."

"What's the matter boy?" Filch approached, "What are you- Aha! It's you! What are you up to? No doubt with those twit mates of yours, eh?"

"I'm _dying_," Lupin continued dramatically, his eyes fluttering shut.

"I'm not falling for that! I'm not! Oh, don't you go falling over like that, you little git. I'll have you strung up by your thumbs in the dungeons before you can say Quidditch."

"Plan B," announced another voice.

Lupin's eyes shot open and he rolled the short distance out of the hall just as smoke bombs and stink bombs alike began blasting in Filch's face.

"AARRG! WHAT'S ALL THIS? YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME *cough* I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP!"

The boys were practically in hysterics as they bounded past the blind Caretaker and towards the front door.

"What a git," said Pettigrew, slightly winded.

"Can't believe I had to waste the last Dungbombs on him."

"No worries, mate." Black adjusted his robes and loosened his tie. "Hogsmeade tomorrow. And it can't come fast enough in my opinion."

"That's because while we go spend our hard earned galleons you'll be snogging Emily Shanks all weekend," Lupin laughed.

"Don't be jealous, Mooney, there's enough of me to go around."

"I'm surprised you can still fit that fat head through doorways," he shot back.

They travelled further from the edge of the castle with no particular route in mind. They just enjoyed the freedom. It had been much easier when the four of them still fit under Potter's Invisibility Cloak, but that time had long since gone.

"They all want me, I can't help it."

"I could name at least ten girls who aren't impressed by your _suave debonair_," Lupin laughed.

"Go on then, name them."

"Nancy Glass..."

"Ha! Always hanging around the pitch after Quidditch games to say 'All right, Black?' 'All right, Potter?' I doubt she'd say no."

"Narcissa Black," Pettigrew said with a grin.

"Ugh, she's my cousin you idiot."

"Plus she's graduated already," said Potter.

"How about Corvinus?"

"We're talking about girls, not robots sent from Jupiter to bust our balls," Black said slowly.

"I think she's cute."

All eyes turned on Pettigrew and the four boys stopped in their tracks. Black's mouth tightened into a straight line, about to spit out some kind of insult before he quickly composed himself. Images and memories of the stone-faced girl swirled in his mind. Out of the four of them, he was the only one who knew that her skin was just as cold as her demeanour.

"What's the matter with you?" Lupin scoffed. "A Frigid Knickers like that..."

"Hey," interjected Black. Only he was allowed to call her Frigid Knickers.

They turned and eyed him expectantly before he continued.

"You know her mother's a Squib."

Potter shrugged while the other two's eyes lit up in wonder.

"I've never met one of those," said Pettigrew.

"How do you know for sure?" asked Lupin.

"Er... My mother told me. She likes airing other people's dirty laundry, that bitch. Especially when it comes to the pureblood families."

"Probably caused quite the scandal," said Potter. "A Squib in a pureblood family."

"Oh, I've got another one," Lupin said, changing the subject. "Lily Evans."

Black looked to his best mate, shrugging with a coy grin.

"She might not say no. With a little convincing that is."

Potter immediately jumped to tackle him.

* * *

**A/N - So I've got a pretty concrete idea of where I'm taking this story, it's just all the damn filler and build up that's causing me some grief. Please review and such, I'd love to hear what you're thinking on the progression relationship-wise (going too slowly?) since I want to keep it somewhat realistic for their ages. And the next chapter will come out much sooner than this one did, haha.**


	7. This is Halloween

**A/N - I'm sorry for the amount of time it's been between updates :( Again, I'm still having quite some trouble with writing interesting filler and build up since the bulk of the plot doesn't happen for a few years. Hopefully the flashbacks aren't confusing; they'll be all in italics and separated with line breaks. Thank you guys for the lovely reviews and let me know what you think of this chapter.**

* * *

The library was always quiet and warm. Sitting alone at a four person work table, Claudia thumbed through the pages of her History of Magic textbook. Chapter three, Troll Politics and Policies, to be more specific. They hadn't quite gotten to it in class yet, but she liked to read ahead just so that she knew what was coming.

_Due to the opinions of Pierre Bonaccord on stopping troll hunting, the warlocks of Liechtenstein would refuse to join the International Confederation of Wizards. Over many years, Liechtenstein had been plagued with several unsavoury troll communities..._

This evening the library was quieter than usual. It was nearing six thirty in the evening, and the stuffy sanctuary was void of students other than Claudia. This was her usual spot, with the best lighting and without any watchful portraits to bother her. In the distance floorboards creaked and she knew that Madame Pince was skulking about somewhere between the shelves. Sometimes she thought she could feel those tiny eyes on her, but whenever she chanced a look away from her homework there was nobody around. The small, mole-like librarian was quiet, but not that quiet.

Claudia sighed, looking at the clock positioned so high on the wall it almost touched the ceiling. She would have to get back to the Tower soon. This evening in particular was not one of Claudia's favourites - but to be fair she didn't seem to like much of anything. She was not looking forward to the rambunctious Ravenclaw common room nor the antics of some of her friends. No doubt everyone would act much like last year and the year before, and Claudia was not happy at the prospect of being kept up until three in the morning due to loud and unruly students. But she had begrudgingly promised Kayla that they would meet in the common room and practice for the upcoming Defence Against the Dark Arts practical test. Her face straight and pale, she gathered her things and headed towards the exit.

* * *

October 31st, 1974 fell on a Thursday. The day of the week really wasn't that important; most of the students couldn't have cared less if their beloved night of debauchery had fallen on a Sunday, or Monday, or whatever. Many of the older students had already resigned to the age old tradition of getting absolutely shit faced no matter what day it happened to be. And on this night classes the next morning weren't of much concern to most. Even Ravenclaw Tower, usually brimming with the keenest and most studious of Hogwarts students, was lost in the throes of the eventual illegal parties. Younger students whispered excitedly, all the while knowing that they were certainly not invited to any gatherings of the older crowd. Marcus Aldrin, Head Boy, was turning a blind eye to the sixth years who were brewing a crude hangover cure in the corner of the common room. Vanora Bloomsburg was modeling a very short and very tight outfit to her friends that while resembling nothing in particular, still somehow passed as a costume.

"What a tart," Kari breathed, trying not to ogle Vanora too much.

Kayla giggled and Claudia turned her head around to glance at the barely clothed third year.

"Can I help you?" Vanora snapped, catching Claudia's eye. "Fucking lesbians."

Her group of similarly mannered friends all giggled and the tall, slight girl cackled along in triumph.

"I thought Ravenclaw was about intelligence, not slutting about," Kari said loudly, her eyes on Quidditch Through the Ages. "Probably fucked the Sorting Hat so she didn't end up in Whore House. Pretty ironic..."

Vanora's already angled features became skewed in Kari's direction, her hands wrapping around her front so that her bony elbows stuck out. Kayla could not contain her laughter and Claudia stared at her friend, mortified. But the younger Ravenclaw could come up with no retort and stood there for a moment, tight-faced as ever, before leading her posse up to her dormitory.

"Nice one," approved Terrance Phillips as he passed by the three girls.

Laughter and nods of approval were coming from every direction as though the same students had not been eyeing Vanora with jealousy or lust merely a moment before.

Claudia had been quickly coming to terms with the newfound popularity of her two good friends. Between the two of them, the Baum twins seemed to fit every niche possible. While Kayla's notoriety was rising as the lead of the Hogwarts Choir, Kari had been winning the House almost every game of Quidditch as the only female Seeker. The competitiveness between the two caused them to be better than average in almost every subject. They were taller than most boys their age and slim with round, pretty faces. Claudia did not feel left out, nor did she covet the attention bestowed on her friends. When they were busy with their extra curriculars she could always go find Lily or even join Astrid in whatever she was up to. The latter usually included strange conversations between lengthy periods of silence. Still, Claudia knew that she was better off here, at Hogwarts. Better off here than secluding herself in her grandfather's library, being forced to live with her asinine aunt, having to entertain her cousins at family dinners. She didn't even want to think about the Greengrasses and quickly pushed the thought away. Yes, being seated comfortably with her friends in a castle full of magic and secrets was much better than any of that.

"I hear those Marauders are throwing themselves a party tonight."

"Don't even think about it," Kayla said, eyeing her sister.

"I'm just putting it out there if you ever get tired of all this reading."

"I'm not going to a Gryffindor party, not on a school night and not with a bunch of drunk idiot boys."

"It's not just a Gryffindor party, everyone's going to be there. Plus they're quite fit if you ask me."

Kayla rolled her eyes and turned back to her Transfiguration homework.

"What about you?"

Claudia shook her head.

"We're studying for the D.A.D.A. test," Kayla answered.

Kari rolled her eyes in a very similar fashion to her twin sister. Though it should be noted that it would be the death of whomever was brave enough or stupid enough to point that out.

"Why are you studying for a practical test? You've got a wand, don't you? That's all you need."

"How does it not make sense to study for a test?"

"It's completely illogical!"

"You're only saying that because you know I'll do better than you."

"I will hex you out of this tower if you want me to prove you wrong."

"I'd like to go to a party," said a quiet voice.

The three girls all turned towards their fourth roommate, Astrid. Sometimes it was so easy to forget that she was even there. Kari grinned widely and looped her arm around the girl's neck, completely forgetting about the current spat between her and her sister.

"You see, Astrid's not afraid of a little fun." She stood, taking Astrid with her, and turned towards the dormitories. "We'll be in our room getting ready to go out and not being stuffy bookworms if you need us."

There was a moment of silence in which Claudia caught several of the glances from the younger students.

"Like they've never seen twins before," Kayla grumbled.

Claudia turned back to look at her friend. She was entirely unconcerned with the recent squabble. Not because she didn't care for her friends, but because she knew that it was of no concern. That was just how Kari and Kayla spoke to each other, and most others who hung around them enough were quite used to it.

As if to prove her point, Kayla smiled and took out a few rolled sheets of parchment.

"Hex-deflection and counter-curses," she announced.

Claudia sat back in her chair, her own large textbook resting open in her lap, though she didn't really need to review the pages. Sharply, something began to press at the edges of her temples and inwardly she groaned at the anticipation of the coming headache.

Kayla was relatively quiet as they went over proper disarming techniques, to which Claudia was thankful. The older students began filing out of Ravenclaw Tower to sneak towards their respective hidden gatherings, and eventually the younger ones retired to bed. Kari and Astrid passed by them, offering a small wave before heading out themselves.

Soundlessly, Kayla mouthed something while making the proper wrist motions with her empty hand. The headache had been slowly creeping upon Claudia until it throbbed beneath her skull and quietly she closed her eyes. Kayla was saying something now but she could no longer concentrate.

"You all right?"

Slowly she nodded, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Do you want to take a break? We've been at this for a while."

"I think I'll go for a walk."

Claudia was already getting out of her seat as she said the words. The Tower suddenly felt suffocating and quickly she scurried out of the common room and towards the spiral staircase.

She had barely reached the bottom when familiar voices met her ears.

The fourth year Ravenclaw boys immediately quieted down as they passed her on the steps. Jonas Guild exchanged looks with Terrance Phillips and Claudia avoided eye contact.

"Ouch! Ok, ok..." a third boy said after being elbowed in the ribs by both of his friends. "All right, Claudia?"

She stopped, looking up at Fletcher McKinnon who was watching her nervously. Claudia nodded, making to move past him but he quickly matched her steps. The other two left their awkward friend alone, mumbling and chuckling as they reached the top of the stairs.

"What are you doing tonight?"

The question sounded forced, Fletcher blurting it out in a rush. Claudia looked at him for a moment, silent. He was quickly growing up, this much was apparent. His nose was still speckled with freckles and his reddish brown hair was getting shaggy. Fletcher pushed the hair from his eyes.

"I have a headache," she responded.

Her head pounded away and she was looking forward to just walking and clearing her head. She continued down the stairs, oblivious to the look of defeat on the boy above her.

Walks like these usually made her feel better. Just quiet time to herself where she didn't have to think about anything. She didn't take them as frequently anymore, but she was smart enough now to know to avoid the main halls. This upper corridor in particular was more secluded than most, since it lead away from the moving staircases and up even further towards the Astronomy tower.

Tonight it felt darker, danker. Claudia could feel the chill of a mist or a fog but the air around her was quite clear. Maybe it had something to do with it being Halloween, she didn't know, but suddenly something began to weight heavy in her stomach.

There was a breath at the nape of her neck. It was crisp and slow and nervously she spun her head around to reveal absolutely nothing behind her. Her temples throbbed and so Claudia closed her eyes, grimacing as the breath trailed up the back of her neck and began to whisper something in her ear.  
A low chuckle, filling the surrounding silence and causing her eyes to shoot open. Around the bend a most intimidating figure emerged and Claudia felt a shiver run up her spine.

* * *

_"What are you doing up so late?" a voice questioned behind the absentminded girl._

_"Walking," she replied, merely glancing over her shoulder in his direction._

_"Isn't it a little late to be out walking?"_

_She had no reply for him but stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall. Portraits and paintings peered at her from every direction. The pair had settled in a commonly-used hallway, where the watchful eyes were always aplenty. Claudia turned, facing him, expressionless. Second year was proving to be exhausting but still she could not sleep. Even though it was well into spring the year still felt like it had only just started. She would lay awake, tossing and turning before silently creeping out from her dormitory. Whenever she closed her eyes she saw the things she dreaded most. She saw her mother and she saw the dishevelled apartment where she grew up and she saw her grandfather's face, contorted with something between anger and sadness. Her mother... The last thing she needed right now was pestering from Sirius Black._

_"What do you want?"_

_He shrugged, meeting the oily gaze of an elderly woman's portrait to his right and quickly looking away. He chanced a step closer to the girl in front of him and when she did not move away he continued his slow, steady pace. In a matter of seconds he had neared her, close enough to note the gaping black bags under her eyes but still too far away to reach out to her._

_Claudia stared curiously at the advancing boy. She did not want to give the impression that he was getting to her, which he was, and so she firmly stood her ground. The two remained like that in the middle of the deserted hall before Sirius awkwardly cleared his throat._

_"Are you always out walking around in the middle of the night?" he asked. Maybe it had been meant to sound sincere, but his distinct accusatory drawl was still present._

_"Sometimes."_

_"Trouble sleeping? I get that too..."_

_"What is it that you wanted?"_

_Black stared at her for a moment before quickly rearranging his features into something a little less concerned._

_"Just warning you that you'll get caught, wandering around in the open like this."_

_Claudia scoffed, turning on her heels and pacing away from the boy._

_"I wouldn't go that way if I were you."_

_She rolled her eyes, turning a corner just to get away from him before she was forced to stop dead in her tracks. Before her, she saw a transparent shadow busily scrawling obscenities across a classroom door. The chalk dropped to the floor as he turned to face her, an amusedly sick smile playing about his features._

_"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves cried happily. "ICKLE BITTY STOODIE-WOODIES ROAMING THE HAAAALLLLLS!"_

_Claudia's features tightened and she quickly turned back the way she had come to avoid the approaching spectre. To her dismay, she found that her path was once again blocked. Mrs. Norris now stood between her and any chance she might have at escape. Exhaling loudly in defeat and frustration Claudia found herself being stared down by the caretaker's associate. Suddenly a hand reached out and she was being pulled sideways by the arm. She cried out in surprise before a second hand clamped itself firmly over her mouth. Her nose inhaling sharply she realized that she had been dragged into a dingy looking closet of some sort. Claudia turned, the hands letting her go._

_"Told you," Black whispered._

_How lucky any other Hogwarts girl must have felt for him to be giving this much attention and pulling them into empty closets in the middle of the night. Not Claudia, though. She was merely panting over the sudden run-in with Peeves and Mrs. Norris and not the smirk Black's lips now dawned. She was also pretty sure that the boys her age were all too stupid to realize just how much the girls liked them._

_"Idiot," she breathed._

_Pulling them into a small space was probably the worst thing he could have done. Now they were cornered and there was an obvious amount of certainty that Filch was now on his way. Sirius threw up his hands as if to say 'what?' Claudia shook her head and turned away from him, her hand reaching towards the door. If she was going to get caught, better to simply turn herself in. Maybe the penalty would be lessened, since she certainly did not want to have detention for the next month._

_"What are you doing?" he hissed._

_"Leaving."_

_"You're not that stupid, are you?"_

_Claudia folded her arms over her chest and looked back at him with a sour expression. He was arching an eyebrow at her, more amused now than worried for her competency. It was as if his chest had puffed out like some silly bird and he took on the most manly demeanour a thirteen year old boy could muster._

_"I've never noticed this cupboard before... Not from the outside."_

_"I guess you do have some sort of cleverness up there," Black remarked. "You're not costing me another month of detention by blowing our cover, Corvinus, so I can't let you leave just yet."_

_She stood there, stiff and awkward._

_"I'm not sure what to call it, but James found it last year. There's a handle from the outside but considering it's invisible it can be pretty tough to find. Probably some sort of cloaking spell though. A lot of the older buildings have them to hide away rooms better left to the house elves and the help. You're welcome for saving you, by the way."_

_Claudia wanted to scoff at him. Saving her, he made it sound so gallant. She surveyed the edges of the small room in which they were currently stuck. It was hard to see anything with such dim lighting, but she could clearly make out Black's figure and possibly a row of shelves behind him. His body had slumped against the nearby wall but still she stood there rigid as stone._

_"Aren't you going to ask me what I was doing out so late?"_

_"I don't care," she finally snapped._

_"Lighten up a little, will you? Better stuck in here with the great Sirius Black than out there with dear ol' Filch."_

_"Sure. I'm going to leave now."_

_He rushed towards her, grabbing her hand before she could turn the doorknob and standing right in front of her. He was so close now that Claudia got the impression she should have felt weak in the knees. Being relatively small for her age, his grey eyes looked down on her as he smirked._

_"Can't take a joke?"_

_She stared back up at him, her eyebrows furrowing at the exact moment his features softened. Her heart was thumping painfully loud in her ears and she realized that he had not yet let go of her hand. He was being a jerk and Claudia just wanted to leave, but then it happened. Clumsily he drove his lips against hers and pulled back barely a second later. She was wide-eyed and speechless. Sirius Black looked very much the same; as if he had been only going off impulse, just to see what it was like. As if he hadn't just kissed Claudia for the first time._

_Quickly she tugged her hand out of his, her expression mortified as she flung herself from the now not-so-secret cupboard and back out into the hall._  
_Filch could have been standing right there waiting for her and she wouldn't have cared. Her face hot and flustered she almost ran the distance back to Ravenclaw Tower with her head down the entire way._

_Standing alone in the empty closet, Sirius was kicking himself. He didn't know why he had just done that. All he knew was that he had wanted to, and so he had. Shoving his hands into his pockets he began the walk back to Gryffindor Tower feeling anxious, his feelings a little more than hurt._

* * *

"Aren't we out a little late, Squibling?"

This was certainly the last person Claudia wanted to see. Balthazar, now in his seventh year, had almost completely filled out in size and height. He was tall, his shoulders broad, with an overall girth to match his size. He was becoming an expert at using his size to intimidate the other students, including younger Slytherins and even his own brother, Harold. There was something of a spring in his step as he approached her, like a hunter who had just caged a most valuable prize.

Putting her head down, Claudia attempted to just walk by him. That's all she wanted, just to be able to leave and pretend that he didn't exist. But it was never that easy.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Amycus Carrow's squashy round head blocked her path and Claudia had to take a step back to avoid bumping into him. Her eyes still on the ground she stood there, frozen, awaiting whatever it was he planned on doing.

"Where are all your books?" Balthazar taunted.

He was so close to her now that Claudia was starting to feel sick. Her stomach rolled painfully and she chanced a glance up at him. His eyes were dark and intense as he took in her cold features. He brought his hand to the middle of her chest and shoved her backwards, hard.

She didn't know what to think. Even after all these years she found herself unable to defend herself in his presence. There was something too obsessive in his words and as much as she hated the thought, Claudia was scared. The only thing she could think of was to just shut down and wait for his taunting to end. At least at her grandfather's there were always adults around, and Balthazar would never pull anything too drastic in front of the rest of the family. But even his eyes, just the way he stared her up and down as if he would devour her at any moment. The fear did not lie in what he had done to her, the childish hexes and nasty taunts, but more so what she feared he might do.

"You know, I think I'm in the mood for a little game."

"Sounds about right," agreed Amycus.

"Why don't we play catch the Squibling?"

Him and Amycus laughed but still Claudia said nothing. She knew this game all too well.

"I would start running if I were you. One... Two..."

* * *

It was a small room with a small window that let only the tiniest amounts of moonlight shine through. But that's all Severus Snape needed; just the tiniest amounts of Halloween moonbeams. His pewter cauldron was lined up to catch the small sliver of light and he peered over the bubbling concoction. The rest of the room was illuminated with the fiery glow of a hundred Flitterbys. Turning it clockwise twice, the potion quickly faded into a lovely pale shade of blue.

Suddenly the door behind him slammed open and shut and Severus almost knocked the entire cauldron over in shock. Claudia Corvinus, breathing hard, regarded him in surprise. Her forehead was bleeding, the spot just above her left brow. Without explanation she turned back towards the door, muttering a strong locking spell before slowly turning back towards the boy.

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded.

She did not answer, sitting against the stone wall and catching her breath.

"Oi, Squibling, we're not playing around!"

"Come on out, we won't hurt you!"

Claudia grimaced. Severus remained quiet as the voices grew louder.

The door handle began to jerk and jiggle as someone on the other side attempted to wrench the door open.

"Fuck this," Amycus complained loudly. "C'mon, let's get back to the common room before all the firewhiskey's gone."

"We'll see you next time, Squibling!"

Claudia and Severus remained quiet for the next minute or so. Probably to ensure that the older boys were truly, in fact, gone, but mostly because they had nothing to say to one and other. The girl raised a pale hand to her forehead, wincing and inspecting the blood on her fingers. Using the sleeve of her robes she dabbed at the small cut until the excess blood was gone. Severus had turned back to his work, now busy crushing what looked like small black seeds with his mortar and pestle.

The Flitterbys danced around happily, if not only slightly rattled by the recent commotion.

"Did Lily show you this place?" Severus asked in a tight voice.

"Yes."

He nodded, his back still towards her as Claudia stood to closer inspect what he was doing. She looked into the boiling cauldron, the warm glow of the fluttering insects casting strange orange shadows around both Severus and his tools. His shoulders were tense, he knew that she was watching what he was doing and it was making him uncomfortable.

"They're gone. You can leave now."

Claudia was still busy examining and labelling his ingredients, her eyes dancing back and forth between what he was doing and the mixtures he had prepared.

"What is that?"

"None of your business, Corvinus, now leave."

She didn't recognize this potion at all. Severus didn't even have an open book in front of him; it was obvious he knew the steps by heart. Claudia noted the alignment of the cauldron to the moonlight. Halloween, superstitiously speaking, was apparently great for making potions. Especially the darker kinds. Severus was a slight, pale boy, terribly gifted in the craft of potion making, and Claudia wasn't all too surprised that he would be here, concocting something of his own.

She looked back up at the Flitterbys as they soared spastically in the tiny room. When Lily had brought her here last time it hadn't felt nearly as warm as it did now. Suddenly she remembered something else. Lily had mentioned that Severus had shown her this room. This wasn't a natural habitat for Flitterbys, since Lily had mentioned she had needed to place charms over it to keep them alive. Something clicked in Claudia's mind as Severus glanced at her uncomfortably from the corner of his eye.

"Did you... Did you conjure these for Lily?"

His lack of response was telling enough. Claudia stared at him until he looked over at her. His pale features were set and unmoving, as if he was resolved to not let his true feeling shows.

"You're a good friend," Claudia whispered as she moved towards the door.

She had never done anything like that for anyone. The idea had never even crossed her mind. Suddenly Claudia felt very lonely at the prospect that maybe she wasn't a good friend. All of her friends were warm, giving, and what was she? In all her life she had never done for others half of what Severus had done for Lily in this very room alone. Of course Lily would have loved that. Poor, defenceless creatures that she could save with her charms. The idea of her magic being used for something good, something that could help others. That was all Lily wanted.

"It's something new. I haven't named it yet."

Claudia stopped before she could unlock the door and turned back around. As Severus added the crushed black seeds the potion took on a greenish grey colour.

"What does it do?"

"Causes the drinker to relieve their most agonizing memory."

Well wasn't that pleasant. Claudia had half a mind that this new potion was intended for a certain group of Gryffindor boys, and she almost laughed to herself at the thought. But that sparked something else in her memory.

"They were here, those Marauder jerks. They wanted Flitterby wings."

"I noticed they're were fewer," Severus sneered. "But I don't know what they could be doing with them. They're useless, those idiots."

There was a long pause as Claudia and Severus both continued watching the potion. Lily's heating charms were actually quite nice as they blocked out the open window's autumn chill.

Severus knew that Claudia was adept in potions. Obviously not as good as him, but still good enough to know her way around a cauldron. Maybe he could enlist her help? No, he waved the thought from his mind. He had strict instructions not to let others in on this. But still, Claudia's family was... darker than most. Sometimes he thought that she would have been better placed in Slytherin, and he in Ravenclaw. Sometimes he went so far as to entertain the thought that both him and Lily were in Ravenclaw together. Claudia Corvinus was an interesting person at the very least. The Slytherins he hung around with talked about her probably more than any other who wasn't a part of their group. They found her heritage fascinating, while also distasteful. Squibs were rare. Squibs with magical children were even rarer. Severus frequently overheard the older Greengrass boy mentioning her name. He was a jerk, Severus thought, but no worse than those stupid Gryffindor boys who constantly teased him. The pale fourteen year old Slytherin knew that they would eventually have to pay for what they had done to him over the years. Bitter, angry thoughts quickly crept into Severus' mind.

Claudia had never really changed her opinions of Severus Snape since their first day at Hogwarts together. He had been rude, almost childish, and it had rubbed her the wrong way. Stubbornly she had refused to let her opinion be changed even by Lily, who swore up and down that Severus was a wonderful person. Claudia had never been able to see it before. But still in that small room, high atop the towers of Hogwarts, she felt like she finally understood him. He was constantly being teased by the Marauders, something which would weigh on any normal child's development. Those boys were terrible, she thought, but they could never be as mean as Balthazar and his older gang of Slytherins. One day, eventually, she would be able to face Balthazar and all he would pay for the years of tormenting he had inflicted upon her. Bitter, angry thoughts quickly crept into Claudia's mind.

They sat there in comfortable silence, each one pondering over the potion at hand, until the alarming sound of a large explosion broke their reverie.


	8. The Longest Night

**A/N - I am so sorry for the ridiculous length of time it's taken for me to post this new chapter. It's been hard finding time to write, and when I actually sit down to bang something out I find that I can't do anything justice.**

**Anyway, I hope you're enjoying it so far, now on with the story!**

* * *

Sirius Black had been having a wonderful night. So far he had managed to snog not only Emily Shanks, but also Cassidy Lane. Currently the skinny Hufflepuff girl of the same age was seated in his lap, her hands around his neck and her mouth moving in an inexperienced way against his. His mind, blurry with one too many butterbeers, did not care that they were snogging very publicly among the rest of their peers. Though, had Sirius been sober he wouldn't have felt any differently. He did not notice Emily, tears in her eyes, as she quickly left the party to retreat back to her Gryffindor dorm. He did not notice his good friend Peter Pettigrew awkwardly seated beside him. He did not notice Fletcher McKinnon loudly complain that there was no more alcohol. He did, however, take note of the sound of something exploding somewhere on the castle grounds.

"What was that?" Cassidy asked, her neck twisting in every direction.

"Nothing," Sirius replied, pulling her lips back to his.

A quietness fell over the party, students looking around and peering out the small windows as they tried to detect the source of the commotion.

The large classroom, tucked away in a corner just below Gryffindor Tower, had not been used in many years. Desks and stools were piled along one wall, an abandoned teacher's desk pushed into the corner. The floor was covered in some kind of age-old grime that stuck to the bottoms of their shoes. Posters and diagrams and instructional graphics clung to the stone walls, so decayed and torn with age that their words and pictures were illegible. There was no telling what this classroom had been used for, nor the last time it had been put into use.

Astrid, unfazed by the recent explosion, was carefully squinting at one of the posters. The Marauders had been so kind as to brighten the place with magically produced candles and artificial lights - it still did not lessen the gloominess of the room. Perfect for Halloween, of course. She thought that maybe the wide space of parchment depicted the anatomy of a frog, or maybe a garden gnome being chased by an enchanted broom. Astrid lifted her arm and used the sleeve of her jumper to try and wipe away some of the clinging dirt. Her head tilted curiously at the image hidden beneath the layer of dust. The upper half of a woman with the grotesqueness of a hag was revealed. Her arm was stretched out before her, clutching a dagger that dripped with something dark.

A hand reached out and took Astrid by the elbow.

"I think we should go," Kari said.

All around them everyone was quickly filing out of the room. Whether to seek out the cause of the explosion or to run back to their dorms, Astrid did not know. With a commotion like that the teachers would surely be up and investigating soon. Kari pulled at her friend's arm and she took one last look at the gruesome image she'd uncovered.

The two Ravenclaw girls could see that dark haired boy, Potter, running up ahead with a few other students in tow. Kari swivelled around to follow him. Ravenclaw Tower was in the other direction, but she knew there was no way those boys weren't headed outside to find the cause of the explosion. And there was definitely no way she was going to miss something as exciting as that. Astrid followed without protest.

* * *

Ogg was getting old, and was already certainly tired of being gamekeeper to a bunch of Hogwarts brats. He ran his large and knobbed hand over his shaved head and took a swig of firewhiskey. The tables and chairs in the Hog's Head were uncomfortably small for him, but still he enjoyed the refuge and comfort of the bar. Sometimes, when he brought Hagrid along, he laughed at the half giant trying to squeeze into one of the chairs. Ogg was a large man, but nothing compared to his assistant. Tonight had been busier than usual, most likely on account of it being Halloween, but Ogg had managed to keep to himself for the hours he had occupied his seat. Swigging back the final sip of his drink, he set down his glass and rose from the table. Digging through his pockets he managed to procure a few coins, which he set down beside his glass.

"G'night," he called out.

An ageing man with bright blue eyes nodded in acknowledgement as he dried glasses behind the bar.

Stumbling out into the night, Ogg only had to look up in the castle direction to notice the high trail of smoke coming from somewhere on the grounds. It looked to be near the forest's opening, on the opposite side of the lake. It looked to be in the area that was fairly cleared from trees. It looked to be directly over where his hut should be. Ogg's eyes widened as he broke out into a jog towards his home.

* * *

"Stand back! I said back up! Yes, I'm talking to you, Phillips!"

Slughorn and various other professors were ushering their students back. Terrance followed his teacher's direction, only to be pushed aside by other classmates as they scrambled to see what was going on. Only thirty or so students of all ages had arrived at the scene of the explosion. The teachers, hilariously dressed in robes and pyjamas, formed a sort of wall between the children and Ogg's hut. The hut which was currently ablaze.

"Who would do that?"

"_How_ did they do that?"

"We're wizards, you idiot!"

"But what spell did they use?"

"WHAT DID YOU LITTLE SHITS DO?"

A dishevelled Ogg came running up from the direction of Hogsmeade. His accusation rang out and everyone stopped to stare at him.

"Mr. Ogden, please calm down."

The headmaster placed a comforting hand on the large groundskeeper's forearm, but Ogg quickly pulled away. He stared at Dumbledore in horror and pure anger, seething as he looked for someone to put the blame on. Plus, he hated it when his boss used his full name.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? MY HOME IS ON FIRE YOU OLD COOT!"

Several students gasped at Ogg's audacity, the scene currently playing out before them making up for the fact that their respective parties were cut short. Though not all of the students had come from social gatherings. Some were dressed in their nightwear, hugging themselves in the autumn chill as they gawked. It was at that moment that Claudia and Severus joined their classmates, staring wide-eyed at the wreckage like the rest. Ogg approached the dwindling fire, the mass of his now charred home having been put out by various other staff members. He turned, his eyes scanning the faces of those around him before his gaze landed back on Dumbledore.

"I quit."

Ogg stormed away, approaching Hagrid, who looked on terrified at the approaching man. He pulled something from one of his large pockets, his hands shaking as he threw a ring of keys in Hagrid's face and continued walking past him. The younger half giant, still scared senseless, looked at Dumbledore.

"If you would all kindly return to your respective dormitories, I believe we've had enough excitement for one night."

The students lingered for only a moment before they turned to head back inside. Hushed whispers and excited chatter fell over them as they grouped together with friends and began assessing what they'd just witnessed.

"Shit, did you see that?"

Kari and Astrid approached Claudia as the students slowly began retreating inside.

"Kayla's going to be so mad she missed all this," Kari continued happily.

"What even happened?" asked Claudia.

"Nobody knows. We were at that Gryffindor party when we heard the explosion. Where were you? I thought you were studying with Kayla? And what happened to your head?"

"I went for a walk."

Claudia turned, still expecting to see Severus skulking behind her, but he was nowhere to be found. He must have slipped away before Dumbledore had ordered them all back inside. Probably to avoid the prospect of detention. As they approached the castle doors a new thought began forming in her mind. She wondered why they were all getting off so easily, why McGonagall wasn't handing out punishments left and right. A group of boys talked loudly beside her, very obviously drunk, but when she turned to look at the teachers they were all grouped together in front of what used to be Ogg's hut. Now it was just a blackened and smouldering heap of wreckage. She kept her thoughts to herself, her and her friends heading in the direction of their dormitory. It was also quite obvious that tonight's festivities were for the most part over. All of the students dispersed, splitting off into groups as they headed back to their own houses. The Hufflepuffs went in the direction of the kitchens, the Slytherins down towards the dungeons, leaving the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws heading up the stairs.

"Oh and the party was great, Claudia, thank you for asking."

She was snapped out of her thoughts, a slightly tipsy Kari laughing at her own joke.

"It was our pleasure," said James Potter, turning towards the girls.

"Potter, are you ready to have your ass handed to you on Saturday?"

There was that competitive gleam in Kari's eyes as Potter tutted in her direction. Ravenclaw was set to play Gryffindor this weekend at the school's Quidditch season opener.

"I think you're mistaken, Baum," said Sirius Black.

He approached her, an eyebrow cocked in her direction. Claudia watched on, though was not too interested in the playful competition between the two houses.

"Are you going to be at the game?" someone asked.

Claudia turned to see Fletcher beside her, his eyes red and tired. She shrugged, glancing back towards Kari, who now seemed to be in a heated conversation with her fellow Quidditch players. The proximity in which she was standing to Black caught her attention.

"You do like Quidditch, right?"

"It's all right, I guess."

Claudia watched him lower his eyes. For a moment he seemed quite sad, but she couldn't understand why.

"I'll probably be there to watch Kari."

Fletcher lit back up, a small smirk on his lips. It was at this point the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors parted ways. Kari bade one final jeer to her competitors before trotting off happily towards the tower. Black, who had for the most part been there to support his best mate in their discussion, had spent the latter half of the walk glancing towards Claudia and Fletcher. He watched her say something to him, watched the smile spread on his face, and felt his jaw tighten. What was she doing talking to him? What the hell could they possibly have in common? He caught her eyes for only a moment before they turned in the direction of Ravenclaw tower.

"What a prat," he breathed.

"Who?" asked Lupin.

"That McKinnon. He's a shit chaser, don't know how he ever made the team."

His friends mainly shrugged and Black shoved his hands into his pockets.

"It is Ravenclaw, after all," said Pettigrew.

"Sure, but you have to admit that Kari Baum's a pretty brilliant seeker," said Potter. "And she really knows her stuff about the league, and did you know that she has a copy of the new edition of Quidditch Through the Ages? That's not even supposed to come out until February."

"I saw Bonnie walking around with a copy as well," said Lupin.

"Bonnie McKinnon?"

"Yeah, she said her aunt or something works for Inkwell Publishing & Co., so they got a couple of advanced copies."

"Lucky..." said Potter, sad that he would have to wait until February for his own.

"Doesn't matter," said Black. "Either way we'll kick their asses on Saturday, right mate?"

Potter grinned, and the Gryffindors continued back towards their common room.

* * *

Professor McGonagall watched as the last of the students retreated into the castle.

"All right, Headmaster, out with it," said the newly appointed Professor Honey. "I know you've got some theory about what's just happened here."

Honey was still wearing her day clothes unlike many of the other staff.

"Probably just a cruel Halloween prank," said Slughorn as he surveyed what remained of the ex-gamekeeper's hut. "Poor Ogg..."

"Or maybe someone sending a message," said Honey.

She looked back towards Dumbledore expectantly.

"I should not have to remind you that you are no longer an Auror, Adrienne. You need not interrogate the Headmaster considering he probably knows just as much about this as you," said Flitwick.

"Albus, the Ministry sent her here because you've been pressing on about these 'Death Eaters.' It can't be a coincidence that you start expressing concerns and then something like this happens. If you truly believe that these people are a threat, then you must believe that they at least could be the cause of this."

Everyone present turned towards McGonagall, but her face stayed pointed in Dumbledore's direction. He nodded, lowering his eyes for a moment in thought.

"Word is there was an attack in West Yarborough two days ago," said Honey. "A young witch and her Muggle husband came to the Ministry but they dismissed the case. Said they were tortured by some crazy individuals wearing masks and spewing all this 'blood purity' propaganda."

The Professors all turned to look at her, Slughorn's eyes wide and Flitwick looking quite concerned.

"Their house was destroyed, too. The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes managed to clean the place up and pull the story from the Prophet before anything could be published."

"How come we weren't told sooner?" asked Flitwick.

"I may not be an Auror for the time being," Honey continued, eyeing him. "But I still have my sources. I wanted to make sure they were factual before bringing it to the Headmaster's attention."

"Thank you for sharing that with us, Adrienne. It would seem as though this incident was not mere coincidence..."

"Headmaster," began Slughorn, "We mustn't jump to conclusions..."

"But we still must begin taking proper precautions. I have feared that this time would come, that the safety of the children would be at risk. I fear that it's possible some of our students have already been affected by these so-called Death Eaters and their leader. It would seem prejudice to pick and choose which students are more at-risk than others because of their heritage and associates, but I see no other choice. Maybe sitting down with some of them will shed some light on the happenings of this evening."

The conversation was over, but it did not alleviate any anxiety the teachers had. They were silent as they walked back towards the castle. The idea of their own students turning towards this rising threat was almost sickening. They had cared for these children, they had watched them grow up over the years. Nobody wanted to believe that they had raised a monster.

* * *

_The old wizard stared out at the countryside through his darkened parlour window. It had been nearing eleven o'clock when he had received that distressed call from his daughter. Now it was close to two in the morning, and he anxiously anticipated her arrival. He didn't even fully understand what had happened, only that there had been an incident concerning his granddaughter. An incident that had left Althea in hysterics. It didn't take much to drive Althea to hysterics, though something in her voice had sounded so desperate, so maddeningly frightened that it had genuinely concerned the old wizard. After the passing of his wife, Waldrom had installed a phone with the hopes that it would make it easier for Althea to contact him. But she had never called, not once, not until now._

_He had known all along that his granddaughter had not turned out as his daughter had. He knew that Claudia was magical. There had been too many signs, though subtle, that pointed towards her being a witch. What bothered him was the level of denial Althea held towards her own daughter. Waldrom knew that Althea had not told Claudia a single thing about her heritage. He did not know if it was out of fear, or jealously or what, only that it was unfair to the young girl. Things were happening all around her, things she didn't understand. Althea told him how glass would shatter when she cried, how her broken doll had somehow mended itself. At first she had refused to speak of these things, but eventually Waldrom insisted long enough for her to crack. He even remembered distinctly when she'd told him, how she had wept and begged him not to say anything to the little girl. It had been one of the few times Waldrom had outright yelled at his daughter. But that was years ago, and he had not seen either of them since. He was almost sure that he never would see them again, that somehow Althea would keep his granddaughter from attending Hogwarts and keep her away from the family for good._

_Claudia did not deserve to feel like a freak. Althea of all people should have known that._

_He checked his pocket watch; almost two thirty now. Finally headlights swerved up the driveway and Waldrom, hands clutched behind his back, moved towards the front hall. He had a feeling that this was going to be a very, very long night._

_His daughter was running up towards the house, reaching him even before he had fully opened the front door. She was speaking to him frantically, but Waldrom could not make out a single thing she said. Her light blonde hair was a mess, makeup streamed down her face and it was obvious that she had been crying for hours._

_"I can't," she cried to him from the front porch. "I-I can't do this."_

_"Althea," Waldrom began, his voice stern. "Where is Claudia?"_

_The thought to worry for Claudia's safety had not crossed his mind, not until he saw the terrified and crazed look in Althea's eyes._

_"She's-she's in the car... Dad, I can't, I can't anymore. She, she..."_

_"Slow down. Come inside."_

_He moved to allow her access into the house, but Althea stood there, frozen. Her eyes flickered towards the front hall as if she were reliving some painfully memory, her head shaking 'no' as she continued to sob. Her eyes, once the loveliest shade of blue, were now red and puffy. A bruise over her left brow caught her father's attention, but he said nothing of it._

_"She's a monster!"_

_"How dare you say that..."_

_"You don't understand! She, she... She killed him!"_

_Waldrom stood there, unmoving, stone-faced as he waited for his daughter to continue. But it seemed as though she couldn't. She shook violently, almost collapsing in a fit of sobs and still shaking her head._

_"Waldrom... Waldrom what's going on? Who's at the door?"_

_An older woman made her way down the stairs, clutching her robe around herself and squinting into the darkness of the hall. Her eyes grew wide and she almost smiled at the sight of her niece._

_"Althea?"_

_Althea paid her aunt no attention, still turned towards her father._

_"Please," she begged, "Please, dad, please take her!"_

_"What's going on?"_

_"Go back upstairs, Sylvie."_

_"Please... She killed him, she killed Jack."_

_Sylvie gasped, frozen at the bottom of the stairs._

_"You have to take her!" Althea practically screamed._

_Waldrom was silent._

_"You have to! I-I can't do this! If-If you love me, you'll take her!"_

_Waldrom was silent still, the knot of guilt his daughter had just awoken in him twisting painfully. He didn't understand what Althea meant when she said that Claudia had killed Jack. He didn't understand how Althea would have allowed that monster back into her home in the first place. All he knew was that he would do anything for his daughter, and that was why he nodded solemnly, and proceeded to follow Althea out to her car._

_His daughter did not even near the backseat door, merely pointing with her shaking finger in its direction from a few meters away. Waldrom could see the pale face of his granddaughter through the window. She was curled up in the back seat with her thumb stuck in her mouth, sleeping soundly. She was eight already, much too old to still be sucking her thumb, Waldrom thought. He opened the door and collected her into his arms, holding her tightly against him as he brought her towards his house. Althea had not brought a single one of Claudia's things with her. Not a single article of clothing, or book, or toy._

_Waldrom carried the sleeping child into the house, feeling her grow restless against him as they entered the hall. Althea approached her daughter, still crying feebly, still shaking as she kissed her lightly on the forehead just as Claudia's eyes began to open._

_"Mummy," she said sleepily, her eyes opening fully._

_She looked around, taking in the strange surroundings, too tired and young to comprehend what was happening. Some old man was holding her, some old man who at least seemed familiar but from where or when she did not know._

_"Mummy!" she repeated, twisting her head in Althea's direction, only to see her back as her mother walked quickly towards the car._

_Waldrom could see his daughter's shoulders shaking as she sobbed. He watched her fumble with her keys and get back into her car. Claudia thrashed against him, desperate to get back to her mother. She began to cry._

_"Mummy!" she wailed, reaching out in the direction Althea had gone. "MUMMY!"_


End file.
